Haiku Speedbuild-14Feb08

Yeah, this archive is a little late, and the pictures are of poor quality (immense apologies to the artists… but you should go and see them in person anyway!)– I’ve had a terribly busy week thanks to RL and I lost my original pictures of the event because of the most recent Linux Windlight update… but better late than never!

This week’s theme haiku:

Drifting errantly
The solar winds of our souls
Bring us together

~Anonymous

3rd Place- Welcome Doobie

2nd Place- Sunn Thunders

1st Place- Alizarin Goldflake

Runners up (no pictures this week– perhaps if you IM them in-world they’d be willing to show you… )-

Peli Dieterle

Ransom Silverspar

Rose Farina

See you on the 21st!

Chiaksan for Sale

Chiaksan, the current sim that the Virtual Artist Alliance Gallery resides in, has seen quite a bit of action in the last few months in terms of virtual real estate.

The Virtual Artist Alliance gallery has, as far as I’ve seen, been the most consistent landmark of the Chiaksan sim, expanding from the original 2048 sq.m. parcel that was generously donated to us to the current holdings of 3584 sq.m. This has happened over the course of about one year, and Chiaksan’s landscape has changed rather dramatically in that time. I’ve seen everything from clubs and skyscrapers to rental colonies and private residences– but now, I’m starting to see the landscape change in a whole different way.

For one reason or another, parcel owners have been dropping like flies, as is common in Second Life. Governor Linden has since reclaimed this land and sold it to the highest bidder, namely virtual real estate companies looking to make their quick buck. I have no problems with this whatsoever, but the contrast between the various real estate companies is amazing:

To the west of the gallery in the neighboring Jirasan sim, CP Costello Realty with their delightfully unobtrusive plaques laying  flat on the ground.They’ve also got fairly decent prices at about L$6000 for 512sq.m. of land

To the North and Northwest, DanZer Juran selling his 912 sq.m. plots for L$18,000 and Brenda Bartlett selling her 512 sq.m. plots for (holy fucking shit!) L$20,000 a piece. I know the picture doesn’t do the situation much justice, but you’d better believe that those signs are rotating in a most annoying fashion while simultaneously ruining the landscape.

Luckily for me, it looks like Jack Linden has taken notice of this problem and intends to fix it. As of February 14th, 2008, “using content, particularly advertising, to deliberately and negatively affect another resident’s view so as to sell a parcel for an unreasonable price, will be deemed unacceptable and dealt with as a violation of our community standards.”

Hooray for the little guy! It is now possible to file abuse reports for people that intentionally de-beautify Second Life’s landscapes. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some landscaping to do…

A First Life Update!

Seriously, I need to update this blog more often.

Those of you who know me will have probably noticed a distinctive lack of Cyanide in-world for the past week or so. This is because her counterpart, Jackie (pictured above, looking rather puzzled), is much needed out-world for things like her newly acquired classes and job. Allow me to fill you in on the details:

About a year or so ago, I was a student at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, majoring in Fine Arts (printmaking, specifically) and Minoring in Communication Design. Being a private school that it is, MIAD got a little expensive for my meager income (approximately $0 of taxable income a year– hooray for full-time academia!), so I was forced to drop out and begin the cycle of student loan repayment. Now a year has gone by, and I’ve decided to get back on the learnin’ wagon by attending the Milwaukee Area Technical College– a considerably cheaper, publicly-funded school that caters to people in situations such as mine.

<rant>So here I am again, majoring in Graphic Design, with hopes that I’ll actually get a piece of paper this time that tells employers “yes, she does well with institutionalized education in an environment that in no way mimics real-world working experience” so they can consider hiring me to concoct their public identities and draw pretty pictures for them. </rant>

Enough of that depressing school nonsense, however! I’ve got exciting news: in lieu of searching for a job for months on end, passing up the basic, run-of-the-mill “money makers” (mindless retail, factory work, etc.) I’ve finally found an awesome opportunity for myself– I am now (pending a background check) a janitor for the Milwaukee Public Museum! Granted, it’s a short-term position, valid only until June while they have the Body Worlds exhibit in town– but still! Being the curious opportunist that I am, having a big ring of keys that unlocks the forbidden doors of a museum jingling at my side makes me salivate just thinking about it……

So there you have it… more tidbits of my First Life!  Stay tuned for more of that “real world” nonsense…

Oyster Bay- The Final Shindig