Profile hopping

Seikatsu's dry comment was "You nut!" when I told her I was Profile Hopping. Yet this is a great way to explore the grid, and find new places, and I actually do it quite often (but admittedly mostly when I am bored).

So here is how it works:

1. Start at any known place, but places where usually a lot of avatars are are helpful
2. Open the profile of the nearest avatar to you
3. Go to her/his "Picks" section, and teleport to the first pick
4. Explore the place you TPed to - once you have seen enough, go to step two again

Of course variations are possible: instead of chosing the nearest avatar, you can also take the most interesting, best dressed, most sexy, most blingy, most whatever avatar. And instead for the first profile pick you can also use the last, or the 3rd, or the most interesting one.

But still it's a pretty funny way to explore the grid, and I found some nice places that way.

Goodbye Tanglia

Last night my friend Therese sent me a TP to the sim "Tanglia" and asked if I would like to come. This revoked quite a lot of feelings, since in my early days of SL I considered the Tanglia sim my home for quite a while. Not only had it one of the most beautiful designed landscapes, it was also the place where I met some of my friends, most notably Cake Kidd, Caterin Semyorka and Pika Pera. It was there where I made my first experiences in roleplay and combat, and where I showed Cat how to use projectile weapons (photo to the right, taken April 2007).

But it was also the place were I first encountered the unfriendly side of SL, and the first (and so far only) sim I got banned from. The person who banned me left the sim in - as I was told - disagreement some time later, and in due course I got reinstated again, but ever since then I have never visited Tanglia again.

So last night Therese invited me, and with some reluctance I accepted the TP. It was an eerie feeling. At first sight, the sim has not changed a bit. Reappearing at the place I left so many months before sent a chill down my spine. The buldings have not changed, the decorations have not changed. It seemed the place had frozen in time.
But then I started to see changes. The southwest corner has been completely rebuilt, as well as the northeast corner. The graveyard has vanished, as well as the sparring arena. The wide open landscape with its countless places to ambush and to flee seemed untouched, but when I started to walk around a bit, I saw that the once beautifully and subtly sculpted hills and passes have been replaced by rough, crude and jagged landscaping. In one word, the magic of the place was gone. Feeling sad I left about half an hour later.

Lady in Blue

When I met Pika Pera in April 2007, she already wore a blue skin. We lost track of each other for a couple of months, but she recently spends more time in SL and despite the timezones we meet each other more often lately.

Being a determined Blueist, she complained that there are no decent blue skins available, so I told her I might make one for her.

The result can be seen here, and the silver bikini adds tremendously to the alien look Pika prefers so much.

3 months

Dear Gina,

today is our 3-month-anniversary. In fact we had no special plans for this day, but we would surely have met, probably doing one of the photoshootings on your list, or we would have gone exploring, or we would have discussed upcoming projects. Most likely, each of us would have one or two additional IM's open, caring about the issues of one of our friends, since people find it easy to talk to us and open up to us.

I celebrate this day alone now, but I know that you commemorate it as well, and it is some consolation to know that you think of me while I think of you. Already for the last anniversary, we decided to not make gifts (even though we are both people who enjoy making gifts). However I want to make a gift to you which I know will please you - I will set the background color of my blog back to White again.

Things calm down over here. Our friends send their regards, and most of them are convinced that we have not seen the last of you. I get very good support from them - we really have met quite some special people here. For many from the outside this is just seen as a game, but we both know that behind each of those cartoon figures is a real human, with talents and virtues, but also with fears and problems. The friends we made in here are real friends, even though we all agreed to call this cartoon world the home for our avatars.

I'm still not sure what to do with your two galleries. You know I never really liked Experience Italy, but it might in fact be a good place once "GREENE concept" takes off. Up to then, it's the only place in-world where your art is available to the public, since I prematurely deleted the vendors from Beachwood.
Kitty is a gem these days. Even though the rental box complains, she said I shall take all the time I need to decide what to do with your Beachwood gallery. In fact I more or less decided to keep it for the time being. A quick calculation revealed that I can rent it for 41 years - which is a very comforting thought in fact. I think I will put my personal favourites of your works up there. You have a very unique sense for situations and perspectives. Other people's SL photography might star with effects and filters, but the purity of your view, the almost unchanged images, and the perfect angles and poses make your art so special. I hope I find a way to place a vendor again, so people can take your photos.
On a sidenote: Stefanik could not yet decide to take your wall of images down, and also Xanthia said she'd prefer to have your images there.

So how are things going on your end? I know you as a fighter, as a person who gives 110% of what she has. I'm sure you patiently work on the issues in your RL that prevent you from coming back at the moment. I still remember the day when I confessed my own issues in my own RL to you. You did an amazing job of showing me positive things, pointing out perspectives and ways how to deal with things. With your help, my RL situation improved daily. I know it's probably bizarre for outsiders to understand, but for us having a partnership in SL while being at the same time determined to our partnerships in RL was no conflict of interests. Thus said, I hope you have the same strength and same insight to resolve your issues in your RL. I am sad that I can't help you with them anymore, but I know you have the faith and strength to work them out.

We all miss you, Gina. You made SL a more beautiful place both through your artwork, as well as through your wonderful and kind personality. Best wishes and a "Thank you for everything so far" from my heart. We all look forward to the day you will return, so you can enrichen our lives again, and make them more beautiful. And when we can again show you our friendship.

In deepest friendship, Peter

No memorial!

[2:29] Stefanik Dagostino: Please visit the Memorial Garden and if you have a texture of a work of Gina that you love most let me have a copy and i will place it!
[2:38] Peter Stindberg: Stefanik, she's not dead! She lives, and she has some work in front of her. And we might even see her back! I really appreciate your offer, it touched me deeply. But it's not what she would want, and it is not what I want!

On the Beta grid

[15:03] Peter Stindberg: You DO know this is only the Beta-grid?
[15:04] v.M.: wat
[15:04] Peter Stindberg: This is not the real "Second Life" - just a "test" SL
[15:06] v.M.: ohh yea
[15:06] v.M.: bnut why is it

Cleaning up

Stefanik Dagostino was the first person to ask me to clean up one of Ginas galleries. That was probably the hardest thing to do, but Stefanik was sympathetic, so I gave him a full set of the art on display. He regrets that Gina had to leave, and in the sight of the whole wall of her images again pointed out her unique talent and her feel for situations and perspectives. SL has lost a great artist, and it seems as with many artists their value is only recognized after they left. I still have a glimmer (ha!) of hope that she might return though. Her creativity needs an outlet, and we need her to brighten up this world.

Friends

In times of crisis, you need friends to prevent you from falling into a black hole. I am priviliged to have some great friends, who listened to my cries, my whining and helped me in my misery. Foremost I have to thank Trinity, who has lost her RL/SL partner to a cruel fate, and who was an invaluable and patient help during the last days. Pika sacrificed her sleep for me and listened. Tarissa, a relatively new friend of mine, had an open ear and warm words. Nynke offered support, Caterin offered help, Cake sent encouragings hugs while I was offline, Sasha distracted me. Véronique, who I barely meet due to timezones, sent warm email notices and I feel even closer to her now. Lillie had some brutal insights in her special way, and her poem - though a coincidence it was - touched me deeply. Fuji was sad that she was unavailable when I needed her most, and Seikatsu - cut off from the net most of the time due to traveling - sent me emails and asked if she could do something. Djanna was on a loss for words, but I felt her caring thoughts, and even my friend Tina, who can not be described to be Gina's biggest fan, went out of her way and symphatized with me. And finally Zylina, who almost lost her husband due to a medical screwup not long ago. Zylina, who likes to play the silly person in order to hide her fragile soul, she made me laugh again. And Zylina was it, who asked if I think that Gina would like me to transform this blog into a shrine of unhappiness and loss? Or if she would rather like me to use this blog to tell of the wonders of my second life? Thank you my dear friends, and all the others who sent encouraging words. You did not take away the grief, but you caught me when I fell, you gave me the strength to go on. And that is what Gina would want me to do as well, I am sure. Go on. I owe her a lot. She brought me back on track, gave me so much help and support. I owe it to her to go on. Whether she will come back one day or not. Thank you, all of you!

Get yourself some of Gina's artwork for free

Gina Glimmer enriched Second Life with her wonderful artwork. She has a great sense for angles, perspectives and situations. Her images are among the best SL has seen. I am sad when I look at the list of projects that will not get finished now.

She did not have a big sense for business. In fact it took me quite some effort to make her raise her prices for custom work. She barely sold any of her artwork outside of custom jobs. In fact she was not in it for the money at all, but to see how a reputation can be built inside of SL. I convinced her to put some of her images on OnRez, but only a handful ever sold.

I decided to make her artwork available for free. Even though she had to leave SL, I want her to leave a mark in this world. And I want as many people as possible to enjoy her images, and maybe think of her when watching them.

You find her gallery on OnRez here - please take advantage of it: http://shop.onrez.com/Gina_Glimmer

There is also an in-world vendor at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Experience%20Italy%20W/179/30/29

Please, spread the word!

Gina is gone

Gina had to leave SL today. I'm too sad and pained right now to write more.

My googleized virtual office

For reasons I will not elaborate on, I decided that "Peter Stindberg" should become a completely virtual personality, with as little ties into RL as possible. And with Peter Stindberg becoming an entrepreneur, working with people all over the globe together, and with the person behind Peter Stindberg accessing the grid from all over the globe as well, it became more and more necessary to put some essential information accessible from anywhere as well.

My friend Avarie Parker, brilliant head behind the SL Entrepreneuer Magazine, pointed out Google Docs to me. Reluctant at first ('That surely can't work as advertised'), I am an avid fan of the web enabled spreadsheets and text processing features. My friend and associate Tina Lynch worked wonders with a spreadsheet for Babel Translations, and I collaborate with Ivanova on our ideas for GREENE concept in a shared document.
Gina showed me Google Calendar, a web enabled calendar for planning and scheduling, as well as seeing other's calendars. Very handy is the ability to include other calendars, like the Planned Outages of SL from Linden Lab.

To keep up to date with the constantly growing number of blogs to monitor, Google Reader came to the rescue. Instead of opening a subfolder in my bookmarks and waiting for the dozens of pages to lead, Google reader aggregates them for me and gives me a nice overview list.

Finally, I arranged all those little helpers on my personalized iGoogle startpage, which looks the same from everywhere I access the web. Two handy widgets further enhanced the experience. a World Clock to keep track of the time at my friends locations, and the list of online friends in SL so I can see who is online without being present in SL.

For me, those tools have extremely contributed to me being organized and keeping informed.

Leaving comments on Japanese blogs...

.... is quite difficult:

Is it just me...

... or is SL really running pretty chaotic lately? The official blog is a collection of problems, failures, issues and limited sevrice. Is that selective perecption on my end or is the grid really in bad shape lately?

Random friendship offers

Friendship offer. Look up profile. Start IM.

[13:52] Peter Stindberg: Hu?
[13:52] meLiina Foggarty: Holas
[13:52] meLiina Foggarty: Hi
[13:53] meLiina Foggarty: Are u there.?
[13:53] Peter Stindberg: Yes. Who are you?
[13:53] meLiina Foggarty: meLina
[13:53] meLiina Foggarty: Sorry but..
[13:53] meLiina Foggarty: I need a job plz
[13:53] meLiina Foggarty: :(
[13:55] Peter Stindberg: Er.... and what do you think I can do?
[13:56] meLiina Foggarty: i don't know but.. plz :(
[13:56] meLiina Foggarty: i need a job , im noob
[13:56] meLiina Foggarty: -.-

Lost in translation

After accepting a job and handling the financial side, this dialogue happened:

[7:55] Peter Stindberg: How did you find us?
[7:56] V.G.: tomorrow 8 am in sl are ok

Linden Lab Application

Thank you for your interest in Linden Lab!

Our company's culture emphasizes transparency and open communication in everything we do, including hiring. Your resume will be sent to the appropriate hiring manager as well as the recruiting team. If your skills and experience look like a match, we will contact you soon to set up an interview!

Depending on the position, initial interviews are conducted in-world, over the phone, or in one of our real-world offices. For the more technical positions we may also send you an initial screening test for you to complete to help us gauge the best fit for you at Linden Lab. The test is not a make or break moment, we just like to get a feel for your experience. This should go without saying, but regardless of the position you're applying for, if you haven't yet experienced Second Life you should join today: http://secondlife.com/join/

Due to the high volume of applications we receive, we are unable to personally respond to applicants who are not selected for interviews. We retain applications indefinitely for each specific position, but if you'd like to update your application or apply for another position, please feel free to do so at any time using our web application process.

Thanks again for your time and consideration!

Sincerely,
Linden Lab
http://lindenlab.com

My second SL company

Being employed in RL, starting Babel Translations as my first SL company was quite interesting. With the experience of 10 months running Babel, I recently started my 2nd company "GREENE concept" with my friend Ivanova. There's a dedicated blog for GREENE concept, which can be found at GREENEconcept.wordpress.com.

Public reception

Peter Stindberg: May I ask how you found Babel Translations?
Ariel Erlanger: actually I just did a classified ad search on "translations", and of the few that came up yours seemed the most reputable, and also you published your rates up front which was a big plus.
Ariel Erlanger: i don't like to have to start off by negotiating rates, so that's a big selling point. and having good english in your ad was the clincher. just in case you were curious!
Peter Stindberg: Well you checked the classifieds. There's 4 companies offering translation services who look halfway professional.
Ariel Erlanger: if you're very loose in your definition