Archive for October, 2007
Second Life Residents want Animal Rights
October 24, 2007 12:09 pmTorture for Dummies: Vote VintLabs!
11:47 amFrom a contest I’m organising to a contest I’m participating in: Crap Mariner needed a ‘Torture for Dummies’ book to add to his in-world library. Creating a ‘… for Dummies’ style front cover for a book seemed like a fun challenge. Opensource Obscure must have thought the same, and is currently leading the poll. Help! ;)
Why vote for Vint’s Torture© for Dummies book cover?
We at VintLabs think that a book cover should represent the essence of the book it enwraps and cover the book’s content as widely as possible. That’s why we did not add a fancy tagline like ‘Discover sleep depreviation, isolations, exposure to extremes of cold and stress positions, sexual humiliation and more‘. No, we have chosen to let the definition of what Torture© is to the readers of the book. We feel that using Torture© is such a personal experience, that it is not our task to define it. The book VintLabs made the front cover for, merely aims at guiding you through the process of discovering what Torture© is to you and how best to - undergo or use -Torture©.
Intentionally using a vague lead image, VintLabs has chosen to not narrow the minds of the readers to only one way of using Torture© right from the start. There are that many interesting versions of Torture© which all have their own features: the Chinese Torture© 0.00.01 (BC) that is known to be used by people interested in the Arts, the European Torture© 1.8.00 that comes with all kinds of fun religious add-ons, the current USA Torture© 2K with Dead Row inventory system (connection to the electricity net is needed for that one!) or the Domestic Violence version of Torture© which is renowned for it’s low usability threshold and is used all over the world. And then there is the Psychological Abuse Torture©, fit for all ages. As it’s impossible to thoroughly touch all versions of Torture© released throughout the years or even all versions used world wide now, we thought we should leave the final decision about the preferred release of Torture to the readers. We feel obliged to mention that - as far as we know - the Psychological Abuse Torture© seems to cause the fewest critical errors. Another benefit with that version is that it’s very hard for other people to discover you are using the Torture© software, when running that one.
Last but not least, the whole VintLabs staff agreed that we wanted to do the book cover for a publication that would actually be used, and would not solely serve to look pretty on the bookshelf or living room table to make the person who bought it look more interesting. Yes, the book might get dirty and messy a bit whilst you take your first steps with Torture©, but books aren’t made to look pretty, they are made to be read and used.
So could we - the VintLabs staff - please have your vote for our design for the Torture© for Dummies book cover? VintLab’s CEO has promised we will go shopping if we win! ;)
The SL Blogger’s party CodeBastard Regrave and I hosted was fun fun fun. We had a wide selection of shiny, cute, rusted, steampunk, … robots and androids. And two person in pyjama’s. Although they were very cute, I dare to ask: ‘What do pyjama’s have to do with robots?!’
As promised, Codie and I will give - in order - one year of free Flickr Pro for a Flickr account you choose, a machinimacam by CodeBastard and a lifetime supply of VintLabs outfits to the three persons that took the best SL Bloggers party photograph. So let us know* which photography - only one, please, don’t make choosing any harder than it already is - you submit before Wednesday the 31th of October and we’ll make sure you will get the price. Ow, upload it somewhere please, Flickr maybe? ;)
Ow, and yes, I needed more time than I had to finish my android skin, so I borrowed Chip Midnight’s texture mesh and changed it a bit. Still think the monitor with the ‘mean’ vs. ‘nice’ barometer was a nice touch. The huge amount of mesh on the nose did make me look like micky mouse a bit. :/ But.. ain’t I cute when staring at Dolmere like that? :D
A huge ‘thank you’ and some *purrring* for all that attented and made this Second Life Blogger’s party yet another great one! Special thanks to Codie for prepping her club and getting the stream in order, and to the DJ Balp Allen for playing great music and all of our requests for only tips. Although I think we’ve proven that the SL Bloggers are a generous people… ;)
Photographs in the running for winning a year of Flickr Pro:
- GoSpeed Racer: High on Steam
- Ryker Beck: Panoramic RedHawtness
- Timothy Lilliehook: Vint in Space
- Tary Yeats: Her Royal Redness
- Raul Crimson: Dancing with the Sun
- Nadine Nozaki: Vint & Nadine @ CodeRed
- Looker Lumet: Dolmere at the piano
- Elusyve Jewell: Into the ligth
Blogposts about the SL Blogmeet at the CodeRed Lounge:
- Crap Mariner - Robots “Schroeder, do you ever wonder why people keep messing with classic cartoons to modernize them for modernization’s sake?”
- Raul Crimson - SL Bloggers Party October 21th I just can’t believe there still exist Second Life Residents who do not recognize Veyron’s cute pixelated ass when they see it! Aaargh!
- Nadine Nozaki - Blogger Party at the CodeRed I owe Nadine some thanks for correcting the SLurl and finding us a DJ timely. W00t for Nadine!
- Alysha - Cool Moment - SL Blogger Party ‘The theme was robots, so I looked for three days for a costume I liked. Finally found it (purple of course) and joined the party. I saw some familiar names - Codie, Vint, Raul, Ryker - and some that were not familiar. But everyone was having a great time and, in turn, so did I.’
- GoSpeed Rader - Vote For me Héhé. Sorry, no voting here. Must be an unanimous decision of the jury, which means Codie and I. That will takes some nights of discussion. ;)
- Looker Lumet - Blogger Party October 21th Go and visit the Flickr set. =)
* If you post the URL in the comments here, don’t worry if it does not appear instantly, as I have comment moderation enabled for everything that contains an URL. Ow, and for people that did not comment on vintfalken.com before.
SLogbase visitor stats: me want!
October 21, 2007 8:11 am
Hello Vint :) I saw your outfits at Ana Lutetia’s blog and I fell in love with your winter outfit. I just noticed that the ads in your store don’t really appeal to the customers. If it wasn’t for Ana Lutetia’s modeling I wouldn’t have considered buying it. What I suggest is to get some better modeling, poses and such. I can model for you if you want or a photoshooting studios could help you with your ads :) anyways, great stuff
Lyanis Lin, who wrote this, does has a good point. Sales went _seriously_ up ever since Ana Lutetia modelled my winter & autumn outfit and included an SLurl to my shop at Mardes. (Thank you, Miss Lutetia! ;)) Yet…
I can do beautiful models, if anybody would doubt that, just look at some of the avatars that are featured in my Flickr stream. I can also do sexy poses, appealing looks and the Princess Dream. Yet again, I refer you to my Flickr stream. But also, I’m not doing that very often any more lately. I’ll do retouching when needed, when asked or when feeling like it.
But as for the promo signs for my outfits, what’s wrong with having an avatar with mediocre looks and pose? Why do we all need to all be super sexy and have an appearance that starts with a capital A? Why does it need to look commercially branded to perfection?
I appreciate the avatars that are just mediocre. That have a bit of a belly. Or are extremely short or high. Or have tentacles. And claws. That lack - extreme - muscularity. That are just cute and not extremely hansom. It’s my Second Life after all, no? The Brave New Virtual world that I inhabit and help to imagine, create and not own anymore?
This is supposed to be my dream world, and I’d like it to be a dream world where not everybody needs to be perfect. Where not all needs to be shiny and heavily retouched. Where there is room for flaws. Even if those flaws are just copies of our RL flaws.
Am I wrong here? Should all be perfect except for the failures/limits that are inherent to Second Life? Should I ‘adjust’ and make one line of ad signs for the stuff that have a house style VintLabs look and that are shiny, modern and extremely appealing? And if I do so, then what exactly makes my Second Life differ from my First Life?
One confused Vint
This also reminds me of the ads I shot for Nicky Ree’s wedding gown. I still like them - a lot - but it probably wasn’t what she expected to see neither.
Second Life web resources for October 17th 2007 through October 20th 2007
October 20, 2007 4:30 pm
I’ve gotten a neat Solistice GTX from Amanda Shinji - you do know her, right? DJ, Moterati Girl, … ? Anyway, this leads to me having to admit that I’ve never driven a car in Second Life before, only some - neat - steampunk stuff.
Now owning two neat yellow sports cars, I couldn’t resist the temptation, and decided to take the Solistice GTX for a test drive.
Now I realise my skybox is probably not the best example of a good test circuit, but I was quited amazed when my car was stuck… on my cushions. A power horse that can’t drive over a few cushions? Only in SL! =d Of course, also only in SL: driving a car around in your living room in the first place. =d Turning was a bit difficult too, needing to back up often and I kept bumping into my photosphere and N30. But I think we need to blame the test circuit for that and not the car. =d
Really confusing was when - I thought - I parked the car and got out: the car teleported launched itself into the air, parked 10 meters higher then I told it to do and I was nothing but a confused lady with a car. Nifty system to save parking space? Is the altitude of my skybox (+700m) to blame? Or am I just a bad driver?
And if the latter is the case, where do I get my Second Life’s driver license? (Or a random Second Life’s driver license so I can make myself a fake in Photoshop. ;))
Ow, and although the human is a huge AlfaRomeo fan and drives a Mazda, I prefer Pontiac because of the kick ass way they got into Second Life and Bentley because they won the car ad-wars. <- Look at the 4 ads in the order they are in! ;)
Called a halloween outfit by Prok, looking good on Ana Lutetia, not sexy enough for Juliet Ceres, sexy enough for Veyron Supercharge and approved by Spinneke Jewel: VintLab’s ‘Are you nuts?!‘ autumn outfit.
Why the ‘Are you nuts’ name?
- It’s something I’ve heard rather often. =d
- Oak tree pattern -> Acorn -> Nuts
It contains?
A highly detailed strapless top and an oak tree patterned sweater, nifty gloves, a daring pair of stockings for when you want to ‘be seen’ and a ‘boring’ - but still classy - pair of stockings too, two lengts of prim skirt - for when you need to be decent and for when you need to be sexy and two versions of the pants, so you can wear it as a dress as well as an outfit with skirt or pants.
Permanent Sales?
As usual, 50% off is given to the people that are listed in my ‘exclusive vendor thingie’ on Shop.OnRez, so if you want to save 150L$, say ‘hi, me wants to pay less’ (comments, e-mail, IM, …), and I’ll add you to the vendor*. That way you will see the sales item listed under ‘exclusive’ on your OnRez homepage. But I won’t protest if you prefer to pay 250L$.
(*Disclaimer: Avatars added to that vendor will be more likely to be approached by me to serve as guinea pigs. I don’t approve animal testing, but I do appreciate feedback on the outfits. So hence I need to use avatars for that. ;))
Reviews? W00t!
She has also some cute costumes. VintLabs is a name you shouldn’t forget… (Ana Lutetia - fashion blogger)
I know you don’t want to make super sexy stuff but this is a bit over the top. (Juliet Ceres - fashion creator) (*grins about the selective highlighting*)
Sexy enough for me to wear in public. :) (Veyron Supercharge - Femme Fatale role model and SL Blogger)
I love the design and I’m pretty sure they’ll be quite a success amongst your customers. They look very detailed and manufactured with the quality you are known for Vint. Looking forward to hearing more from you :-) (Spinneke Jewel - famous Belgian avie)
Where to buy?
Both the mod/copy and mod/trans version of the ‘Are you nuts?’ autumn outfit are available on Shop.OnRez. If you prefer in-world shopping, I suggest you drop by at my skybox, my little shop at Mardes or use the MetaMart HUD.
PS. Project ‘Dress Vint’s Human’
The - by now infamous ;) - Leopard Print Top by Mexx has arrived in the Netherlands in healthy condition. Rose Rothlisberger reported it is now sold out, so I’m sure Wuf and my human will have the last two copies. May it safely and ‘un-wrinklingly’ continue it’s trip to Belgium! ;)
First Belgian Real Life Second Life Party - Picture Report
October 17, 2007 12:24 pm
Random memories from the Second Life party at Hamme, organised by Sammy Bourne:
- I did not win a tshirt. Why not? I guessed wrong at Philip Rosedale’s age. Apparently he’s born in 1969, not 1975. Like I can help it he’s old?! ;)
- No gadget freaks to be seen. At all. I thought we were supposed to be all tech savvy and addicted?
- No wifi present. (That’s why I did not win a tshirt. :D)
- Spanking pats are easily created and good thing to get a party going.
- RL pole dancing is harder than SL pole dancing. Especially if the dancing animations were left behind at home and the dancing poles have a diameter of at least 30 centimetres.
- Declared the area ‘mature’. Dalien added ‘voice enabled’ and ‘no push’.
- We are NOT bad looking boring nerds. Most of us are good looking, witty and interesting.
- Sammy Bourne has big plans for (Belgian) Second Life. Neat plans too.
- Ganymedes is fun! (also in RL) (also a bit non-sober)
- Ganymedes Costagravas and Vint Falken are up to now unbeaten at the soccer table, and thus reigning King and Queen of Belgian Second Life Table Soccer.
- I’m getting old and/or Vint’s human after illness combined with some alcohol tires fast.
- My laptop has now ‘SL’ as country code. Thanks for the sticker!
- I’m sure I looked like a very happy/content cat at times. I wonder if I *purrred* loud enough to sound out above the music. =D
- Holding a camera is a great way to escape from having to participate at the polonaise. =d (But actually, I knew that already.)
More photographs can be found in my ‘Real Life Second Life Party at Hamme, Belgium’ Flickr set.
