But what a nice world has opened itself for me: the Tiny sims are full of lovely, humorous and amazingly cute details! A few examples? Do you remember those snow balls from when we were young? Glass balls, filled with snow and a tiny scene, which you put next to you bed. I dare to bet almost all of us owned at least one. And I also dare to bet almost all of us wished they could ‘disappear’ into the snowball’s scenery at least once. Suddenly, become a part of that little tiny world. At the Tiny Universe Convention, find Cue Fride’s ’snow balls’ which are tiny little scenes you can sit your tiny avatar in: read a book, go to the toilet, get eaten by a shark, … . Just utterly lovely! More photographs of these tiny snow ball scenes you can find in my ‘Tiny Universe Convention’ Flickr set.

Another great example is Miyaoka Hitchcock’s latest release: the cutest fan you can imagine. And it’s an actual avatar! Very strange seeing that around. If it were not for the avatar tag, you would think it’s part of the scenery, and then suddenly it starts walking. Astonishing, that one is. Behold the ‘tiny electric fan avatar’:

And then there is the way of presenting all the avatars taking part in the convention: a long tunnel you walk through, and they are all lined up as little toy soldiers with their creator tags… there is the beautiful logo that’s build in prims… ah well, just go and take a look for yourself: Tiny Universe Exhibition - Dust - 97, 146, 90 (May 25th to June 1st)

Seeing there works on display in the virtual world was sure as hell impressive, and so was the music and the guests… Miss Ravenelle and Mister Torley ‘Linden’ Olmstead. Woot! I must admit, this was the first time for me to see Torley IRL.. euhm.. IVL and I was kinda stuttering. First thing Torley said to me? ‘Is that a watermelon drink you’re holding?’ :p

Jax Streeter gave the best of his virtual self and played one hell of a set - with ‘Avatar Superstar’ as my favourite song. As promised, I bumped the song 9 times on TheSixtyOne.com and gave Mr. Streeter my underwear layer. He has at least one new fan after this gig! /me hums: ‘No matter where you’re from. No matter who you are. In this world… you are… superstar… avatar. Play like you are. Act like you are. Rezz like a superstar, avatar!‘

More photographs of the exhibition opening in the Koinup Windlight Exhibition Opening Flickr set. For those curious: All photographs except the one of Torley Olmstead were shot with the ‘Pirate’ WindLight Preset.

The winning entries and 7 nominees for the Koinup Windlight Contest will still be on display in-world for a few week, so if you missed the opening, you can still go and see them. Correction, you should still go and see them! Directions: Open your map and search for ‘Cannery’ (or click this SLURL), upon arrival at the Cannery sim, you’ll see a big sign saying ‘Koinup & Rezzable’. Click the TP disk located under it, and we’ll get you right to where you need to be… but you won’t hear a live concert of Mr. Streeter.

PS. A certain Miss Mira owns me bandages for my poor little sour paws. Never ever give me a lighter before telling me to detach it when I plan on typing! ;)

Mr. Jax Streeter performing ‘Avatar Superstar’:

It’s huge, and although I saw it grow and flourish, there are that many builds I have not seen yet. Or that you take for granted, as being part of the Garden, but that are actually little artworks on itself. A beautiful example are Artoo Magneto’s beautiful trees: a small detail, easily overlooked, but it makes the whole… well.. astonishing.

Another thing that I overlooked - or did not know off - is my own, Dutch music heritage. Apparently the song ‘Het Land van Waas en Maal’s lyrics are about the Garden of Earthly Delights. Would be so kewl if it could be covered by an artist who performs at Gardenstock.

So, there are a few ways how you can discover the Garden of NPIRL Delights:

1. Get the HUD. Available at The Dump entrance.
2. Go to The Dump and go on foot - don’t forget to take a miner’s helmet - or fly or jetpack or whatever. NPIRL ways of strolling the Garden are encouraged.
3. Go to The Dump and walk through the tunnel and take a tour vehicule. Best for easy adjustment to a huge load of NPIRL virtual art. The tours give you a great overview in less than 10 minutes, so it’s a great start before you explore on foot.

Let’s end with a quote of Lauren Weyland that I absolutely love:

Alice in Wonderland never fell far enough. Gulliver didn’t sail far enough. Michael Smith didn’t imagine enough. For if they had, their authors, Carroll, Swift and Heinlein would have written about the Rezzable Garden of NPIRL Delights.”

PS. Yeah, the belgian weather is back and it is sure as hell rainy. More SL playtime for Vint again! ;)

It’s almost opening to the public and we’re pretty nervous: another rolling restart is announced and we have no idea how that will influence the grid and our building festival.

As per overall Garden law, I can’t show you photographs yet, but I don’t think this is a violation of that rule. This is what happens when Lauren and I need to hunt you down for artist information. *grins* Poor Mr. Cheen Pitney.

Anyway, believe me, things look great and very NPIRL - not possible in real life. Even the pathways, threes, music stage, avatars, … and press release can be found here. For more news, keep on eye on garden.rezzable.com - you’ll also find an overview of the creators and builders participating in the creation of the Garden of NPIRL delights there - and the NPIRL blog.

I’m curious what you opinions about the garden will be!

The Golden Greenies are created by the Greenies to give avatars that live their motto ‘Green the Grid’ a more personal reward than L$ can ever be. Getting a Golden Greenie Teddy Award means ‘we utterly love what you just did or created’ and ‘TY!’ so much for sharing it with us and letting us show it to the - virtual - world.

Winners of the Surfline Greenie Holiday Photograph Contest were Kaxu Heron for ‘Best in Virtual Sports Photography’, Zoe Demar for ‘Best Holiday Photograph’ and Iodee Tae for ‘Best Holiday Postcard’. A huge ‘congratz!’ to those three ‘avies’. They all got a 5000L$ deposited on their L$ balance. Kaxu stated he will spend that on getting new poses, we do not know for the others. Zoe? Shoes? Iodee? ;)

All photographs can be looked at in the Greenies Holiday Photographs pool on Flickr, or admired on the Fridge at Greenies home sim. They are fabulous and amazing!

More photographs of the award ceremony itself in my ‘Golden Greenies Teddy Awards 2008′ Flickr pool.

Nominees for the Golden Greenies Awards and the Surfline Holiday Photograph Contest as chosen by jurors Nock Forager, Nobody Fugazi and Vint Falken are:

Miss Iodee Tae

Miss Zoe Demar

Mister Kaxu Heron

Miss Taylor Flanagan

Crimson Shadow and Carnie ads

Rather happy with these two. The one for Carnival of Doom was shot with no anti-aliasing and no high resolution snapshotting available in the RC. So we made the best of it. The Crimson Shadow one was re-shot using RC 1.30 - I think, or RC 1.23 - which the bugs above mentioned fixed. I think it turned out pretty nice, although I should have positioned model Lokum 90° degrees to her left for the main avatar in view. Ah well… . Still like them. =)

The Triptych of the Rezzable Garden of NPIRL Delights

What happens when you touch Hell? Or Heaven, for those lucky souls amongst us? Will you end up in virtual purgatory - or get wings, a cute little halo and the power to throw lightning?

Rezzable is constructing the heavens, earth and hell for you together with ‘Not Possible In Real Life’ and a great team of fabulous builders. We couldn’t wait to give you a preview of what it looks like when art gets more interactive than it could ever be in a museum (don’t touch the exhibits!) or a book (who spilled coffee over the underworld?!!) With all due respect and a friendly wink to the great artist Mr. Bosch, we beg you to touch his art.

Want to find out what exactly happens when you touch it? Heard rumours about that utterly cute flying flash light? Saw the Godsent Wings and Godsent Lightning Bolt Thrower on someone and want one yourself? Always wanted an interactive piece of art in your virtual bedroom? You can test and pick up a copy of the Rezzable Garden of NPIRL triptych at the Garden HQ at The Dump sim (SLURL). For people who prefer to do their shopping off the internet, you can pick up one for free at OnRez.

And various other Garden of NPIRL Delights stuff. More information at garden.rezzable.com. And yes, this includes meeting very hansom avatars. *grins*

Greenies Staff Meeting

Aren’t we cute? Somehow it reminded me of Real life photograph by Lewis Hine.

Digging up RL art in a virtual world

Just when you though you had a desk job, you end up with your hands in the dirt in a graveyard, shovelling up photographs at Rezzable 09 where the ‘Kill All Artists’ exhibition is being held. Ah well, Mr Danone’s photographs are definitively worth the effort and sour virtual muscles! ;)

The Flickr group Greenies Holiday Photographs is created especially for the gathering of entries for the Greenies Postcard Contest.

There are 3 themes, and you can submit a max of 3 photographs/theme:

1. Best Postcard (tag: “surfline_postcard”)
2. Best Holiday Photo (tag: “surfline_holiday”)
3. Best Action/Sports photo (tag: “surfline_sports”)

For an entry to be valid, the photograph must be taken at one of the Rezzable Surfline sims and must contain at least one Greenie.

The best entry in each category (as decided upon by Nock Forager, Nobody Fugazi and Vint Falken) shall receive 5000L$. The winning photographs will be put up on the Greenie fridge for a month with a note saying who created them. Rezzable is allowed to use the three winners for promotional purposes when attribution is given.

The contest starts *now* and ends on the 15th of April. The winners will be notified before the 22th using Flickr mail and in-world IM.

What hangs on the fridge now? Of course, these do not enter the contest. I’m sure you can do better anyway!

One moment, you’re freezing your - pretty - virtual ass off at Cascade…

… next thing you know, you find out your soft, sensitive white skin is not the best one to wear at the Surfline sims…

… only to end up at a staff meeting where company hierarchy reorganisations are taking place…

. ;)

Vint

Sims were packed - totalling at over 60 avatars each - when the fair launched. Today I’ve witnessed an average of 35 avatars/sim. The problem is, that causes lag. Even if all ‘not really really really necessary’ scripts are gone, physics objects are limited to a minimum, visiting avatars remove all prim objects, and so forth. The only solution? Limiting the amount of avatars on a sim. But that is hard to do, as without visitors, no event.

‘People expect this kind of lag when coming to an event like this. It is not a major problem.’ was something I heard often today. Yeah, I expected it, but that does not mean I like it. Personally, I would gladly try a few times more to get into a sim, or wait a while to visit it until the ‘first two days’ hype is over to take a look. That is, if that gets me a more smooth ’shopping experience’. And I’m bound to buy more if I can ‘cam around’ more easy and if I may feel comfortable, still wearing my prim hair. What would you prefer? Get in easy? Or move around, cam around, load textures, etc, etc, etc easy? Right. My point exactly. (Feel free to correct me when wrong. ;))

Funny Fact: If the Raiders raise 2 000 000 L$, David Jacobs - Event CO-Chair for RFL of SL will wear a dress for 1 week. Would that become a pink latex dress? Or something glittering and shiny, with palettes all over it? And don’t forget the garter belt, David! (I assume it’s his virtual him wearing the dress. Although, not sure if that was stipulated in the wager.) :d

Zoe Demar posted an interview with Pips and Nevar on the Rezzable blog.

Ok, so now that we’ve established that Rezzable is creating, building and organising a lot of quality stuff, what will I be doing? As sims constantly change - nothing is static in a virtual world, the Dino Destroy as a recent example of that - I will have some main things to focus on, and some constantly revolving ones. But there are:

1. Rezzable.net/rezzable - Know of someone who did not join SL yet and you want him or her to join up? He or she is curious what virtual worlds is all about, but thought the whole avatar thing to complicated? We’re glad to help out!
2. Greenies - Cutest extraterrestrials in the whole metaverse. All who thought they were limited to just being cute to look at, will soon be proven wrong. Finally, Greenies are mine! All mine, I say! I am allowed to help think and do with Greenie stuff. They’ll stay just as cute, but will become way more engaging. I bet my ears and tail over this.
3. Rezzable Art - SLart at the Cannery and Miss Melodious upcoming show. Helping out a tiny little bit. Does anybody happen to have fig - Ficus carica that is - leaves in their inventory?
4. Second Life for Relay For Life Fashion Show - Rezzable donated 4 sims and of course also takes part as a designer team. According to Vint, very interesting: virtual consuming that actually has a real and touchable First Life good cause. Or how virtual worlds, actually can make a difference. We’re not all about pr0n and ‘look how dirty those virtual minds are’ newspaper articles.
5. Tunnel of Light - Mister Spiral Walcher’s amazing WindLight build. For ages, tweaking the client menu to get some kind of glow effect, it is now officially ours. It became high time that someone showed the possibilities of WindLight glow to all. Besides, this renders the use of PS filter diffuse glow totally unnecessary. Yeey! Generaly tiny bit helping out. To go and visit there, IM me, and I’ll be your date for the ride. ;)
6. … - Yet more and much more to come.

Curiosity satisfied?

Ok then, let’s hop to the next subject: virtual ‘independence’ of Vint and vintfalken.com. That is a hard one, even for me. I always blogged - and will continue to blog - about things I was either busy with doing my self, or thought noteworthy, interesting, … for all of SL residents, or virtual future or just for my readers. ;) Of course, I’ll continue to do so. But now a lot of stuff I will be doing, will be Rezzable-related things. For reasons of being clear, things tagged ‘Rezzable’ and put in the ‘Rezzable’ category will have to do with Rezzable, the others will not. I see some logic in that. ;)

An example of this: If I blog about an upcoming Rezzable event I’ll be partaking in, I’ll tag it ‘Rezzable‘. If I blog about Veyron Supercharge’s latest affair, I’ll tag it ‘Veyron‘ and not ‘Rezzable‘. If I write that I don’t like Age Verification and am not planning to take part in it because it will solve nothing and I tag it ‘age verification’ and ‘rant‘ but not ‘Rezzable‘, then that is clearly my - Vint’s - opinion and not Rezzable’s. This can’t be that hard to ‘capiche’. ;)

Hoping this clears things out,
yours truelly,
who is very happy with the fact that she joined Rezzable ranks,

Vint Falken

PS. RaR is not going to like this, but I already found a great excuse for being late for work that is neko-worthy: ‘Help! On my way to work, I fell in the bottle that says ‘Milk’, and now I can’t get out.‘

Really, they should make those builds kitty-proof. ;)