Torley Lives

Buddhism isn’t just about meditation and denying self-gratification to attain a higher state of being. When I was bute a chylde, I visited a Buddhist Hell Theme Park in Thailand. Fun for the whole family: sculptures depicting tongues being torn out, lots of spikes and bodies on said spikes, and certainly heaping amounts of simulated fire and brimstone that would make other religions’ demons feel inadequate. With great joy, my wife and I visited Higashiosaka (click to teleport), the first Buddhist Hell Theme Park in Second Life — the first I’ve ever seen, and likely the first there ever will be. Filled to the prim (pun intended) with scampering souls, corpse-crushing demons, and good ol’ Saṃghāta, that mountain that keeps squashing the sinners. If it isn’t obvious, we had a rollicking, remarkable time. The quality of the build is superb, surrounded by metropolitan buildings out of a Godzilla movie (several demons stood watch), and centered by a pointy temple protruding out of the earth. Around the temple, sculpted little people with crudely-drawn faces and pubic hair ran around in circles, flailing, feeling ever-so-hopeless. And surprisingly animated. See Ravenelle’s video for an in-motion adventure: While you can’t hear it in the vid, a pleasant and/or bone-chilling soundtrack of guttural screams surrounded the whole work, while skeletal hands out of an Iron Maiden album cover intermingled with firetongues. Those who aren’t so rapt on their history will also draw comparisons to certain World of Warcraft or Lord of the Rings creatures. Goes to show how creative human imaginations have always been! There was so much to see and do here, and I really appreciate extra attention to detail like the flaming rocks coming down from the sky, the birds circling the temple’s top, the lightning bolts which (among other things) were reminiscent of the Peacock King trailer I saw the other day (wifey and I have been watching various Wuxia films), etc. They all add up for a cohesive, powerful place well-worth visiting. All in all, terribly rich, and enhanced by custom environment settings. And now when my not-yet-Resi friends ask, “What can I see in Second Life?” I can point them here, which might be kinda edgy for the Showcase but worth the visit all the same, and it’s especially meaningful if your cultural background is attuned to the relevance of… BUDDHIST HELL! MUHAHAHA. The only downside? Not knowing who to thank for this experience epic, and why they made it. I didn’t see any advertising, and the main builder’s profile was empty… empty! Seems like they’re of Japanese origin, tho. I’m curious, so if you know, fill me in. Wikipedia has more info on Naraka and hells in Buddhism, and you can’t go wrong with Flickr pictures either (WARNING: NOT FOR SQUEAMISH).

“Incroyable” is French for “incredible”, and since French is a romantic language, I need to declare: there’s a lot of love in Second Life, and one of the best (and most obvious) ways to share the love is to visit kewl/cool places bristling with romance and beaming with affection. TOGETHER. In recent weeks, my wife and I have had the privilege of knowing a number, and if you’ve been wondering where to take a date, these 4 will definitely answer part of your question. Scroll through the pictures above to whet your adventurous appetite, then read on. You can visit each by clicking its ALLCAPS TITLE below, which’ll open up a page asking you to teleport inworld. Come with us… TEMPURA ISLAND Apparently, some of the same people responsible for the horrific (in the scary, not the sucky sense) [REC] experience made this. Which makes sense and proves their aptitude for diverse immersivosity (yes, I made that up). Centerpinned by a gleaming, golden ballroom which uses the “copy prims and flip them upside down to fake a reflection” trick to great effect, there are also light shafts coming through some of the windows, surely a comforting warmth to bask in with your lover. The overall feel is post-Renaissance. In addition, there’s a vintage (I hesitate to say “steampunk”; it’s more like fairypunk) submarine with luxurious interiors: a round bed and meticulously-placed food only reaffirm the cohesiveness of the experience. And when you get really lovey-dovey, head into the forest, where you can’t possibly take a bad picture. I tried several of my WindLight settings out, and was startled by how well each one simply gelled. As we’ve seen, it’s one of the most beautiful forests in Second Life. NATURUM ISLAND Summer camp all over again, only grown up. Decadent and gracefully-styled, the lush arboreal arrangements here will leave you and your partner awestruck and breathtaken. “Naturum” sounds like “Natural”, and it’s only natural that you ride a supplied canoe out into the water, and perhaps even partake in the fishing game they’ve got going. Ravi and I didn’t, but it brought back memories of Neo-Realms fun. Other pastimes await. In the most excellent tradition of “But wait, there’s more!”, there’s a second Naturum Island which extends the beauty of No. 1. Should you want to shop, some carefully-arranged and fun goods are on display. Heading into even more familiar traditions, there’s campfires you can huddle up with — be sure to play with your WindLight settings; they’re a real mood enhancer! Some of the sculptie-stuff can take awhile to rez, but it’s more than worth it. SWEET MERMAIDS If you’ve seen my grand panorama of this place based on Greek culture, you’ll know I like it a lot, and not just because I dig Yanni (a master of romantic music). Verily, creator kenny Humby has been fantastically talented and nice, recently adding a fireworks show. Walk down the streets — there’s a station where you can get on “walk together” poseballs, awwww — and follow the paths down to the beach. Some of the build, specifically the massive underground beneath the island leading down to the water, looks incomplete, and I’m eager to find out what it’ll be like when it’s done. The fake moon is a standout and while it may be odd at first, it casts a soft glow not present in the system-based moon. By the balconies are poseballs which you can do, well, all sorts of sweet things on. (Poseballs are kinda like SL’s passion facilitators.) Don’t forget to take lots of piccies to treasure the memories afterwards! KENROKU Most of this place isn’t made for romance, per se. It’s actually sort of a showcase for a store that sells well-made-yet-expensive trees which have a unique feature of being able to simulate seasonal weathering. A couple highlights I need to point out: (1) The really well-crafted sculptie bus. While a bus may not be the most romantic vehicle to you, it holds special memories for me, for it was on a coach line such as this that I first came to meet my wife “in the flesh” after Second Lifing with her. It’s fun to get in (albeit a bit tricky) and sit down. (2) Of likely broader appeal, there’s a nature walk with lush vegetation which inspired a couple new WL settings. Somewhat reminiscent of Naturum but with its own character. It’s a nice place to stay still and open up your soul. So there you have it: enjoy your Second Love Life, and if you have favorites, please let me know in the comments!

I like to keep in touch with what’s out there. After all, Second Life is my fave virtual world, but once upon a time, I had never heard of it — hard to believe, I know. I’m in the closed beta for Just Leap In, and one neat thing is you can embed a player to their world in a webpage. Another neat thing: you can throw around other avatars. To put it subtly, DON’T OVERREACT THESE AREN’T REAL PEOPLE I’M NOT GRIEFING!

Video courtesy of my gorgeous wife, the exquisite Ravenelle Zugzwang I love experiencing exceptional stuff in Second Life, and this is an exception among exceptions! Disclosure: I’m beta-testing Damien Fate’s newest creations, the Loco Pocos, which effectively translates to “Crazy Tinies” from Spanish. What a catchy name, and a nice guy: he graciously gave my wife and me a tour of the forthcoming Loco Pocos Island, and you can learn more at the Loco Pocos website. So why I am I gushing so much over these beautiful creatures? Simply put, they excel on many levels: I’ve known many SL products which were great in some ways, but felt like they were missing quality in others, and would benefit from a collaboration or further development on the part of the maker. For example, a well-crafted club which lacks event hosts so it’s always empty, or a brilliantly-scripted device which looks like crap. (What I say: can’t do it yourself? Team up with a friend… or friend-to-be!) When evaluating Loco Pocos, let’s start with the base judgement of an avatar: how they look. In two words, they’re fantastic. Sculpted for maximum adorability and loaded with potential personality you can infuse more fun into, it’s hard to gaze at them for longer than a few seconds without going, “Awww!” Loco Pocos are severely easy-to-use and come in different animal varieties: the Heads-Up Display allows you to easily customize your accessories, which is going to be mighty handy for both (1) newcomers and (2) non-English speakers. Damien even went to great lengths to translate the manual into 7 languages (incl. English), but the HUD itself is primarily visual and works across any tongue. You can even click a part of your body to show its options on the HUD, and wearing an accessory will also bring up the relevant palette. Soon enough, I had gone watermelon (as I’m expected to). Next! Within seconds, I was clicking the HUD to activate my body animations. I used to lament why Second Life was missing the particle-enhanced gestural fun that There has, and there’ve been scant leaps forward over the years, but the Loco Pocos package makes animations so simple and rewarding to use: again, just click the HUD to make your Loco Poco emote. From a good belly laugh to bawling your eyes out to Zzzing lazily on the ground, there’s a fine assortment. And there are both facial and full-body animations. Loco Pocos also make sound when emoting, and there’s currently a basic male/female selection. Damien’s planning to do more voice packs, and that’s got me intrigued. (Since I’m an aspiring voice actor.) In a move that’d make Popeil proud, BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! Loco Pocos have a story. That’s right, Damien put a lot of thinking into crafting a plot, and Loco Pocos Island will include not just a store (with more accessories), but games to play in mini-modular worlds, too. I tried 3, and while I can’t reveal the surprises, each had a different mode of play and was reminiscent of 3D action platformers. One of them did heavily engage our powers of observation, and the end result led to more curiosity — always a good thing if you want your audience to engage the product. That being said, it looks like the Loco Pocos marketing is similarly awesome. On top of all the preceding elements, how is anyone going to enjoy your creation if they don’t know about it? The packages in the store were well-designed and evoke memories of the cartoony fun I had in Taco years ago. I hope word-of-mouth spreads massively here; it really deserves to, like how it benefited the spread of the earliest tiny culture. Tiny culture is an abundantly cute part of Second Life, but it’s also overflowing with innovation. From Wynx Whiplash & ExtroVirtual’s initial accomplishments, to the advanced Japanese refinements of form, to these Loco Pocos — there’s a lot to celebrate! ^ Oh, and that points to why I hope fantabulous machinima is made with them. My wife remarked, “They look so 3D!”, referring to my post-processing having brought out the cyber-natural sheen of the Loco Pocos such that they could be in a Pixar film. Sculpted prims are really suited for these curvy, plush avatar bodies, and I’m eager to see what creations come in kind.

2, maybe 3 Torleys have all the fun. Based on: Williams’ remix of Tangerine Dream’s “Love on a Real Train” My original animated GIF

You may know that in addition to other things, I’m also a stand-up comedian. Download audio file (definition-of-drama.mp3) » DOWNLOAD MP3

More melons here. Thanks to my beloved wife for serving the watermelon.

I often get asked how I get location (SLURL) and tags auto-added to my Second Life postcards. The secret is simple, and I’ve got a video tutorial! I use Mark Barrett’s SLBuzz, compleat with Flickr crossposter, to work the magic. This is a Resident-run service so I disclaim it’s not part of Linden Lab; I’ll also share I’ve sent 1000s of postcards and it’s been a gargantuan timesaver. A number of other Second Life sites I thank also have Flickr crossposting features. See instructions on: Snapzilla blogHUD (must be logged in) And I use these sites’ “normal” addys to submit to their own photo pools; SLBuzz has its own photo pool too. Usually, I actually send postcards to 4, comma-separated email addresses: flickr at slbuzz.com, x at slpics.com, pix at bloghud.com + a personal email archive addy I encourage experimenting and discovering the joy of what works best for you. There is no way I can cover all the amazing possibilities, so if you’ve made guides secondlife”, many of them showing inworld activities. There’re many Second Life groups on Flickr, the biggest having over 6,600 members and nearing 200,000 items in their pool. Click through this picture (as featured in the video) to see all the glorious details: And now you know how I do it! Enlightening!

I like when what was a long-winded, aching process becomes much more spontaneous. Especially content production: being able to make something and upload it smoothly is a tremendous pleasure. I decided to have some fun with Apple’s Photo Booth extended via more effects (hey, I see a familiar name there… qarl!) + FlickrBooth: version 2.1 records video, but doesn’t upload videos to Flickr (but it does work with YouTube). So what I did instead was record the vids to HD and then upload them later. Despite Flickr video upload issues, these all eventually got through safely, and with the magic of Flickr Set Manager, I was able to easily create a set of my videos and have it auto-generated daily. Sound intriguing? Go give it a spin… AND LET THE FUN BEGIN! Metal Gear Solid Acappella… this one not so sad Oh c’mon, I totally had to do a Mega Man “okkusenman” OWV (Obligatorley Watermelon Video) “WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?” - A story about my Dad GAHHHH! Darth Torley… or is that Emperor Palpatorley? Had to do a Caramelldansen too Yes, I am really strange… in a familiar way! Show me your funny videos!

I’ve been enjoying the wonderful new features in the recent Windows Live Writer Technical Preview — it’s my fave blogging tool, and despite the name, these additions are mostly very easy-to-use. Over at Lifehacker, Jared Goralnick shared a wonderfully visual guide which highlights the excitement. One feature in particular, automatic linking, caught my eye: it provides an easy way to simply type a frequently-used phrase and have it be automagically linked. I’ve created a quick video tip showing you how it works in action, and if you’ve never used WLW before, I highly recommend the experience! (Alas, no Mac or Linux version.)

When Flea Bussy of Grendel’s Children fame sent me this luscious Meandering Melon avatar… I was instantly compelled to meander. The only problem was — and this isn’t so much a problem as a solution — that I was listening to Hideo Kojima speak about his masterworks, the Metal Gear Solid series. A quick video followed, dosed in some green-brown tinting similar to cinematics in those games (particularly the forest scenes in MGS3), and ‘twas then I made another observation: Why do so many acapellas sound happy? From barbershop quartets to beatboxing (of a sort), I’ve nary heard a SAD-capella. And thus, this joined the fray: me singing a mournful version of a triumphant tune and being a resolute failure at expressing this emotion. But Solid Snake — or Meandering Melon, in this case — didn’t give up, and neither can you.

Cat avatar by Achamo Paine. Filmed by Ravenelle Zugzwang. Inspiration from Steve Ballmer. Motivation from Torley (the non-feline kind).

This is of tremendous usefulness if you re editing screenshots the slow way (as I was), and allows you to add spice in a few seconds. I m so much happier with this smoother process. Check out Picnik and get the Firefox add-on.

Experimental excitement. I missed being able to roll into the shade for a long time. Now, this slice of joy returns — you might say: Let there be WindLight, and now there is darkness. More videos are appearing, lindseywarwick, davidgross, and somatika have shared the shadow-world through their eyes. This ll be grand for sundial fans.

Stop calling me dude! OK, but you must take this scepter of awesomeness and bonk your head with it — 4 times. No more, no less. The truth will then be revealed. Verily, I accept this noble bonking. *thunk thunk thunk thunk* Now hail the name of bonkkyu Bonetto. And watch this. I hail thee, bonkkyu Bonetto! I m watching this. Wait a for few moments and the excitement must begins! Bow before thine new Masters and Maidens and behold! The pixelogy does not obscure the spirit of a truly badass work and/or play, with its intro genetically descended from an empire of anime and fighting games. At first, they re all doing this perpetual walking-forward thing before it ascends into utter uncanny wisdom of the sage-ages. Girl with enlarged eye-visor, Transformer-cycle yellow mecha, and even a doll-figure who strongly resembles Chun-Li. Flashes strike the darkness down like the biznotch it is. The music roars on, bombastic and dramatic, prompting some sort of showdown between the lead characters — or at least cinematography with airy angles and particle ker-blam! But wait, I must have more to be sated! My appetite grows and like Sinistar, I hunger! Well then, gaze upon the moment in spacetime where a black-haired chick wearing more guns than clothes does a fancy spin and fires em off (1:27)! Thrill and wet your pantaloons as the color schemes do your head in! Gape in utter astonishment as a giant robot and a comparatively diminutive female do some progressive ambulatory behavior while the sky aches and shudders into different colors (2:04). AHHHH TOO MUCH EXCITEMENT! Slow your roll then listen to Dynasty-like strains accompany The Abyss @ 2:30. Rewatch that while you scheme innocently. Then prepare for a reload of the ultra-energy when a split-screen closeup (first time I ve seen that done from SL, natch) helps move product @ 2:46! XD!!!! If you like anime girls dressed as maids, boy do I have a treat for you just shy of the 3-minute mark! And then you can watch an epic chase scene while highly-stylized battles rage on and an impressive guitar solo scores explosions round the city! This is the kind of ad that ll make people want to come in Second Life and say, I want one (or more) of those!

How to use Picnik in 1 minute: Also see my extended tour for why I m enjoying Picnik so much! I freshly upgraded to a Picnik Premium account. This US$25 investment was a no-brainer, considering how many right things they ve got going for them. For one, their website design is exemplary, consistently-themed (grass s benefits, it s a winner all- round. Picnik itself is fantastic: totally integrates with Flickr (altho you can upload images from your hard drive and other sources too), the effects enable you to get stunning results in just a few clicks, and it s severely smile-inducing. And especially important to me is the convenience of being able to pop or enhance an image within minutes, or even seconds, without wasting time downloading and re-uploading — that s a chief strength over any offline image editor, and I bet it ll be a big market strength in time to come. I hope they add some more useful tools soon to keep pace with/beat other contenders in the field: I m in want of a selective fade edges option. I ve tried other web image editors but I found their rough edges led them to far be less satisfying than Picnik, which reinforces to me that aesthetics m starting to recommend Picnik to Second Life photographers, particularly newer ones who are curious how to get great post-process effects without spending a lot of money or time. Picnik makes it that much more accessible, and while it s inevitable some snobs will decry it as a toy , consider how many great achievements begin with play, and here s an easy, rewarding learning curve which bypasses frustration almost entirely. Also after I made the video, I found I didn t need to relogin to Picnik via Flickr, and it had saved my Premium status. Not sure why it happened before, but chalk another plus point. More companies should follow Picnik s lead — did I mention I had a lovely time with their customer support too? Yes.

My wife and I have really been enjoying our new tiny cat avatars made by that magnificent :3 pirate, Achamo Paine. They re sculpted for maximum cuteness and even have different jacket colors — wouldaya thunk it, #5 is watermelon! My weeks are so crowded full of stuff so on the weekends it s delicious to relax. Normally, I like to send postcards and document my travels live, but postcards significantly slow down simulator performance (SVC-2283). HOPE THAT GETS FIXED SOON. So I ve been saving them to disk. Upside: better image quality. Downside: no auto-tagging via SLBuzz, which means I ll have to manually provide SLURLs, something I haven t really done in a long time. Amongst other places, we visited TEMPSTAFF, which appears Japanese. Not sure why the name, but there seems to be a confectionary/sweets tie. Here s where we found the Orientation Island from HELL (I keed), because it had this really cool HUD you wear, then it sends you into what appears to be a cross between American Gladiators and Super Mario Bros. that makes the Linden Orientation Island look like baby s play. Not only is there a 10-min. timer counting down, obstacles in your way and the learn how to fly section of the course is a twisted tangle of transparent blue pipe. A challenge where your humility is at stake may rouse the games-minded yet! After that, we went to REC, which has been getting a copious amount of buzz, like from Aleister Kronos and Natalia Zelmanov. Apparently it s a Japanese promo for a Spanish-made film — don t know the official story here — but it s incredible. One word: FollowCam. One of the most underused scripting features in Second Life. If you ve played the first Resident Evil, you know how fixed camera angles add to the suspense? Same thing here. Wearing a HUD which is triggered as you enter different zones, the camera is controlled for you and on top of that, there s an uneasy blinking REC light in the upper left, along with letterbox cutoff AND SOME SCARY NOISES WHICH STARTLE, WTF!!!! Suspense, horror in Second Life is rare. Most stabs at this (heh, stabs) are more caricaturish/cartoonish than dripping with fear/anxiety. So REC is definitely badass, and we kitties are cute in the blood. But I ll repeat: enterprising scripters who want to dominate and own a valuable niche market which is horribly overlooked ballmer FOLLOWCAM, FOLLOWCAM, FOLLOWCAM! /ballmer (Mebbe I need to make videos to communicate that last point better.) BTW, I incidentally was the first to suggest doing this kind of experience in Second Life, way back when Kyrah Abattoir ran some experiments. That was OVER TWO YEARS AGO. I d love to see more, and don t forget that at my office in Grasmere, you can pick up a free FollowCam pack to get you started. Ravie + I also moseyed over to Harajukubox Town which had some nice reminder of food, and Japanese-esque stuff (not made by actual Japanese, but inspired). I ate a baby octopus the other day, man, I m dangerous! And to cap it off, we used our new Sketch! Sky Pens which I bought off of SL Exchange (convenient shopping without having to teleport to a store) to leave a mark on the world for minutes, anyway. I enthuse over these things because they re incredibly well-designed: the HUD and even touch dialogs (better than having no choices at all, despite how boring they can be) work well together. Basically: you go into mouselook and hold the left mouse button down to start drawing. Glow adds to the neon vibrancy of it all, specially if you ve ever seen a certain iPod ad. Resolution and width of lines can be customized, and just make sure you have plenty of prims if you re not going to use the temporary mode. This is an improvement over earlier particle-based variants on the same idea I saw, but were, ah, sketchy. But clearly, Random Person (that s his name, don t wear it out) has marketing thought out.

If your electric fan happened to be a tiny avatar in Second Life, you d do it like this: The prolific Miyaoka Hitchcock highlighted this fine creation at the recent Tiny Avatar Convention I blogged about. Yes, he used my piano music — a pleasant surprise which I didn t realize until after I clicked the info-panel. When I was young in Thailand, I used to talk into fans and change the speed by clicking buttons. The oscillations modulated my voice robotically, and streamers hanging off the fans have come to life again, here as flexiprims. This ad gets many things right: It communicates the benefit of the product and its ambulatory uniqueness, which really doesn t get revealed until halfway in. Aha! It does so in the cohesive, beautiful, natural environment of HPMD. (Showing that mechanical devices and woodland critters need not be at odds.) The camera motion is smooth and delicious — Miyaoka is one of Second Life s flycam masters. Somewhat unsung, so it bears repeating: HE ROCKS WITH THE FLYCAM!!!! It sticks to the points in less than 90 secs, but isn t afraid to add some imaginative flourish. Because of all of the above, it s memorable. After seeing this ad, I knew I wanted a Tiny Electric Fan Avatar. I never had a desire for one before, but that s successful marketing. In other words, it s a superb example to be inspired by. Full disclosure: Miyaoka even made special watermelon-colored versions for me! That makes me like it only more: a great product by a nice person with a lovely color scheme! There is only win within.

If there s one thing I ve learned from minimal techno music production, it s that the most basic elements (bass, kick + snare drums) need to be done right before any overlaying accoutrements can be added. Without a solid foundation, the house may as well be made out of cards — inevitable collapse. I recently attended the Tiny Universe Convention. Sensational, splendid, and bursting with the vibrant creativity which exemplifies the best of Second Life. Tiny avatars in Second Life look like what they sound like, often consisting of the default humanoid avatar mesh scrunched into a meatball position (with an animation overrider) so prim attachments can surround the outside. Sometimes, invisiprims to hide the default mesh are used too. Tinies are often cute, and have become a unique SL cultural tour de force. Although many are to cheer for their continued success, Wynx Whiplash How do they do it? or Where can I get an avatar like that? It s a delicious curiosity. Today, I experienced what can only be described as a joyful saturation, an explosive abundance of the latest phases of tiny evolution. Like minimal techno music, it started with an essential theme, a core idea — tinies! — and wove supplementary layers of aesthetic genius around it. My jaunt began when I heard from Nock Forager, then saw some pictures on Happy mood (yuyu Flores) and Miyaoka Hitchcock s photostreams of some Torley-colored (watermelon!) tinies who were waiting for me, Torley-san. Photo by Giorno Brando. FOR ME? I m honored and surrealized. As you ll now know if you didn t already, I have a resonant kinship with talented craftsmakers in Second Life who are high in exemplariness and low in st00pid drama, and focused pods of them can be found in our Japanese communities. I don t speak Japanese, but am incrementally amazed by their brilliance which transcends the written/spoken word. From technical advances in sculpted prims to laser-sharp design which inspires others to improve their store layouts to their overall niceness, one can only gain and be bettered by their flowing festitude. [Today (2008-06-01), the Convention ended at 8 AM PDT, and I'm happy I woke up early with my wife. I didn't get a chance to attend earlier due to sheer lack of time, and am thankful to the tiny mavens who waited for me.] Upon entering, I instantly made a number of observations, lessons which could and should be applied by future convention organizers seeking design excellence They choose a theme of space , and the kiosks reflected this: each tiny model stood on a unique planet , with a transparent floor showing you planetoids and other astronomical esoterica underneath. In an open courtyard at the end, they even had a moon you could walk on. While not every tiny avatar was space-oriented, they all benefited from a cohesive theme. More about the kiosks themselves: arrangement simplicity. A curved path was laid out from beginning to end. It s linear, you walk on it, and along the way are avatars in spaced increments — basically, merchandise on display, but definitely not crude. A copy of the actual tiny avatar is shown (in 3D, not just a cardboard cutout), and to the right is the buy this avatar panel on top, with an info-panel on the bottom. While diverse artists had different stylistics — I ll note some avatars were only available for the duration of the event — this, too, helped bond all of the creators by way of a common format, allowing them to show off shared strengths and make it easier for any casual visitor (such as myself) to easily learn about and purchase said tiny avatars. There were flavorfully-sculpted bipedal animals (the initial tinies form), micro-humans, mini-mecha, a cactus plant, and even an electric fan. This particular fan proclaimed itself to be a Torley fan. Juxtaposed with such neatness, after you complete the space walk through the space-spheres, I was joyed to see a messy moggling of boxes, stray scraps, and other creative chaos. It was like their basecamp, where many of them waited for me. But guess what? It came after a well-assembled section of freebies, the history of tinies in SL (to be translated to English, I m told), and even a DIY tiny kit. I don t know if this is the first DIY tiny kit, but it s the first I ve seen, and while I haven t explored it in-depth yet (still have lots of goodie-unpacking to do), that s a remarkable idea in itself. It ll both help make it more easy for newcomers to get started making tiny avs, and propagate the culture. Relating it to what Seth Godin often preaches/teaches: make your ideas easy — smooth! — to spread. No coincidence that TED s motto is ideas worth spreading , and I hope that cultures like Second Life tinies get more coverage in outside media. Beyond the surface cuteness, there s deep psychological intricacy of why we choose these tinies to represent ourselves. And if the likes of NeoPets and Pokemon can succeed to the masses, so can this. I give my most exalted THANXIES! to the main staff of Tiny Universe Convention: Nobunaga Ogee, Cue Fride, Tomoneko, Mayo, Fake Fitzgerald, Zig March, and Achamo Paine. I also need to thank Nock Forager, Miyaoka Hitchcock, and the HPMD (Happy Mood) members for getting me so excited in the first place. Furthermore, gracious thanks to Hiroaki Rhino for being my friendly tour guide and translator, and thanks to each and all the great tiny and non-tiny avatars I traveled with onsite — we were like this organic swarm headed forth, THE BEST RPG PARTY EVAR, and it was nothing less than epic thrill to see those of you who dressed in watermelon colors. My colors stand for positivity, and it s clear you do too. My only disappointment is that I didn t take enough pictures, but many of you are named within. For more information, visit the Tiny Universe Convention pool. While the event is over and the grounds are empty, you can check out the Tiny Kingdom region for a continuation of the excellence I had the pleasure of being a part of today. Only in Second Life.

Just in time for the holiday season! aka Neko Yukidaruma , the artistry of Achamo Paine. Music by me.

On Lifehacker s Friday Fun, I learned about a cool way to travel through Flickr planets using Tag Galaxy. I was inspired by the kinetic motion of it all, and had to make a little screencast. The video is a lot more exciting than this still picture (wish Flickr would let you pick a frame at-will) so push play and listen to me do a George Takei impersonation!

Torley Linden just can t get along with his costar, Torley Tester.

Second Life is an awesome place where you can unleash your creativity after it was repressed in childhood, deal with your emotional pains and trauma from failed relationships, learn useful skills to enrich your existence, and do a lot of badass stuff that simply isn t possible in the real world . Apparently, you can even make money. Some make a living. A big living, which isn t just about money, but happiness too. Sound too good to be true? It s not. I m living the dream, and so can you. Friendly greetings! I m Torley. I m not just a member as we call ourselves, Residents I also work for the company that made Second Life, Linden Lab. But we re not the only makers. Second Life is severely prone to what geeks call user-created content , which is another way of saying: you create the world you live in. Whether it s outfitting your avatar (the virtual version of you) in stylin threads, shooting the shittake with newfound friends, landscaping a tropical resort, or as I ve done, making a giant watermelon for a house, it s all possible here. I hope you ve enjoyed this advertisement. The pretty pictures are all true, aside from a touch of simulated TV distortion. If you go frame by frame, yup, that s ALL stuff you can do inworld. So our lawyers don t take a big pink sneaker to my ass, I gotta disclaim the ad s not official. I made it because I felt motivated. It happens often. And there aren t actually four easy payments Basic accounts are FREE, and you can find out about the benefits of Premium accounts @ http://secondlife.com/join , so don t hesitate. We re a business, yet with someone like me working for the company, what does that tell you? I m just a lively guy who loves having a fun time in Second Life, and I hope you will too. And by the way, I make video tutorials, so if you d like to learn Second Life in a fun em out.

I enjoy the waves of wealth the Web has brought us to create new things with, even in fields we may ve shied away from traditionally. Lowering the barrier like this can only be a good thing, for it turns the craggy peaks of an intimidating learning curve into rolling hills, encouraging development of one s skills and potential future expertise but keep in mind I think expert is a largely meaningless word! Nevertheless, the fun cannot be denied. Heard a few days ago about FontStruct, brought to you by FontShop. In previous years, I wouldn t have thought of fonts as a social networking activity like swapping music or sharing pictures, but with the emergence of more media made easy (like the music-making programs that are continuing to rise), it was only inevitable. FontStruct is at once easy to use and enjoy. It s the easiest font editor I ve seen so far that blends a reasonable amount of modular power with an elegant, minimalist interface that lets you focus on your fontage with the glaring exception that keyboard shortcuts do not work in fullscreen mode. (It s a Flash app, and a well-done one at that.) FontStruct even has a well-made video tutorial (you know how fond I am of those!), and it indeed helped me get up to speed in a few minutes. A little over 1.5 hours later of browsing and dabbling with the FontStructor to make my darling new font, here it is: I call it Crimbelle , because it sounded right. Very, very nifty that you can embed fonts like this; that s the first I ve seen, and a very catchy way to share the fonts for sure. I would imagine as this catches on, we can expect to see more people who ve never made a font before have some fun with this. Fonts don t have to be literal, either; there are many pictoral ones, some very impressively designed like this gallery of robots: Another design inspiration usage: quickly creating some glyphs to be used as vector scalables in a larger design. With the whole process of build, share, download a quick one, your ideas won t get stale/forgotten. A side nicety about this is, FontShop is a business, so FontStruct is a gateway to their offerings; their advertising is delightfully non-intrusive: Go, create a font and let me know how it went!

I often get asked to suggest music I enjoy. The following is some of what I ve been listening to recently. It s mostly electronic, but if you re not into that techno stuff , don t worry, don t be scared off: I love melody meshed with a memorable momentum of production, and it isn t boring robot music. (And hey, even Kraftwerk had a sense of humor.) My point being: listen, and if you like and want me to suggest more, let me know in the comments, kay? Aril Brikha - Winter and Bergain Download audio file (SF255851-01-01-01.mp3) Download audio file (SF255851-01-02-01.mp3) This guy s been known for making techno that sounds like trance . Hmmm. What does that even mean? Heck if I know, labeling evils are near-meaningless to me, but what you should care about is he s got bouncy beats + bass underpinning a sparse weave of echoey chords and a lovely sensibility that makes you go, If I was in the 80s in a Ferrari driving to the beach with mirrorshades attached to my face, I d totally be bangin my head to this! Only not so obtrusively. A fine choice to photograph models to. Vangelis - Pulstar: The Hits of Vangelis Alas, no sample here. There s a funny story behind this, tho: years ago, I found this in a Thai music store on cassette tape, and put it in my Uncle s car deck. He s deaf and a damn good driver, so he was cruising down a Bangkok road (before running into one of those notorious traffic jams) while my bro and I were bopping in the back. The first track is a kickass version of the classic Pulstar with a heavy disco beat and synth tom action. It influenced my choices later to use many synth tom rhythms myself. In case I haven t made it clear, this is an album of covers by some unknown source, but they re well-done parallel universe versions of the originals. None of the others are as dancy as the Pulstar remix, tho. Good to sleep to. Peter Gabriel Make Tomorrow This song looks like it took a small army of cooks to put together: chiefly noticeable in the production mix is BT (Brian Transeau), endowing the river of this 10-min. aural masterpiece with his distinctive beats and flanged stutter edits. There s beautiful strummed acoustic guitar and other instruments, making for a very down-to-earth yet soaring sound. The sublime, excited jam that kicks in past the 7-min. mark is UNMISSABLE. What an optimistic message, too. At least on some levels. Wish there was a music video; this track is one-of-a-kind. If you want to browse music samples at your leisure, I recommend the smartly-designed Trackitdown, the MP3-well-linked Juno Records, and the taste-catering Pandora. Round the bend, I ve got an action-pax0red review of Pendulum s In Silico (released today!) coming up, so stay chooned!

Ever wondered what the unfortunate Second Afterlife of an avatar who wasted its First Second Life looks like? Wonder no more, for I see many curious things inworld, and this leaked footage , which made it to me by risking the (second, third, fourth, etc.) lives of many, is a cautionary tale WARNING US TO MAKE THE BEST OF OUR TIME ON THIS FLAT GRID! For your consideration, I present (a part of) the tragic saga of one soul deeply afflicted with camping chair rage, leeched upon by bear-zipper parasites and reminiscing about his youth: a time before teleports (apparently, when airplanes had wings) where he chased a stewardess he couldn t have. And here in the land o damnation, he finds himself teased, taunted by the charms of gorgeous Ducky, who he just can t quite reach because of his stubborn insistence to remain seated and earn a few more Linden dollah . (Little does he know how long it takes for a minute to pass in hell! The cruelest joke, my friends, is eternally on him.)