Watch your avatar name with Google Alerts

Everybody has "googled" their avatar name before, and the more vocal ones of us have certainly found a mentioning here and there. But did you know you can automate this process? Google Alerts is a nifty little gadget that allows you to store Google queries within the search engine itself, and get an email report (or a personalized feed) as soon as one of your searches gets a new result.

I am using Google Alerts both for my SL avatar as well as for my RL person, and it has become an essential tool for me. However the other day I read an article by metaverse consultant Ener Hax and realized that probably not everybody knows about Google Alerts. You might notice that against my usual practice I did not link to Ener's article. The reason is that Ener writes she has - just like me - set up extensive Google Alerts "so if someone mentions me, i wanna say hello back". I hope Ener Hax shows up in the comment then to prove the effectiveness :-)

As you can see from the screenshot I have set up Google Alerts for my name and the name of my businesses and the projects I am involved in. In my particular case I have also set up Alerts for the common misspellings - some people never get my name right. Basically you can set up Alerts for every valid Google query. The "link:" queries you see in the image for example fire if someone links to my blog.

Admittedly I have edited the screenshot. I have also set up Alerts for my avatar name in conjunction with my real name - I want to know right away should they ever appear in the same context. I have also set up Alerts for my competitors so I can keep an eye on them.

I hope this helps you keep a better eye on your online persona - and of course these things apply to your RL identity too.

Diversity

Ten of my female friends, posing naked for my camera. Not only 10 different shapes, but also different skins, expressions and attitudes. This is just a glance at the rich diversity Second Life has to offer!

The "Diversity" project was inspired by a RL project I saw on Tumblr a while ago. Ten women, naked, showing the variation nature has in stock for female bodies. In SL we tweak our own shapes, select our own skin, and create our own appearance. I chose 10 of my friends for their unique way of appearance. All 10 of them defined femininity for themselves - making it very diverse to look at.

All women were asked to pose topless, but other than that, no requests were made. They should use whatever accessories, hair, tattoos or jewellery they feel most at home with. Ten poses were created for the shot, loosely inspired by the poses of the RL photo, and I selected the pose fitting the model best. Some poses look a bit shy, others show very self secure femininity and nakedness.

I took about 20 photos of each avatar with different lighting settings and arranged them in a hopefully harmonic way. Countless times I shuffled the single photos until a balanced collage was achieved. I only did very subtle post processing on the images, mostly smoothing edges where the SL mesh did not have enough nodes for pleasing stretching of the skin.

I am showing you some diversity. And this is just a glimpse. There is so much beautiful diversity to be found in SL. So many people living their dreams and fantasies. Go and find out for yourself!

My thanks to (in alphabetical order): Chav, Jenn, Lectra, Marx, Natsumi, Nissa, Quest, Trinity, Uccello and Zippora

Beauty is skin deep

It got suggested to me a while ago, that the skin I used is not up to speed anymore. I know (female) friends who change their skin all the time, and spend literally L$-fortunes on getting the latest skins. And while I admire the quality, it is rather confusing to me nonetheless. My SL sister Trinity is just like me - she used her skin for ages until recently she changed it for a new version. Since I was honored to give my feedback I know that she shopped around for a long time, until she found a skin she was comfortable in.

I tried a few demos of male skins, but they all changed me. I spent a good deal of time tweaking my avatar. I don't like the majority of male avatars - many look like caricatures, using Conan the Barbarian and the Incredible Hulk as role models. Grossly oversized chests on ridiculously small hips - muscles exaggerated as well. The market for male skins seems to cater for that - hairless chests and shiny "sixpacks" dominate. However my shape is rather small, with realistic proportions. Peter Stindberg is a fragile avatar with a subtle maleness - not a bodybuilder.

What made me most reluctant however was how a skin changes your face. I like my face, I like the expression of softness, affection, empathy and curiosity with a subtle smile. All the demos I tried ruined this.

My favorite elf and wonderful friend Elusyve pointed me towards Hart Larssons PXL Creations and urged me to get some demos of the new "Jude" skin. I tried the demo and my mouth fell open. What I saw was me, but in a new, enhanced version! The face stayed the same, the body features stayed the same, but all of it had a subtle enhancement, a fresh polish.

Well, enough words, let the images speak:


The chest hair (which I like despite any fashion trends) is much finer than on my old skin. The pubic hair is a bit strong, but usually invisible anyways.


Extremely important for me is the face. I remained the same unshaven look. They eyebrows are more defined and my eyes come out more prominent.


The butt on my old skin was a bit more contrasted, but then again the shadow in the butt crack was a bit too strong. With the new skin the shadow might be a tad too subtle though. The arms and back of the hands are more defined.

The skin came at a whopping 2000 L$, including a set of 15 different body-hair options, but only one face. Since I only ever wear the same body hair, I would have preferred a pack which would include all 10 different face options. I might spend another 2000 L$ and get the clean shaved pack.

Despite this minor issue, I am extremely happy with the skin. It is still me, does not change me, subtly enhances my characteristics and features. Thank you everybody who encouraged me, who gave feedback - and thank you Hart for such a beautiful skin!

Avatar Rendering Cost debunked

Since the introduction of Avatar Rendering Cost, there was controversy. Like no other tool before, it was quickly used to discreminate. There are reports of avatars being ejected or banned due to too high ARC. Rather drastic opinions on ARC can be read at my friend Kitty (http://kittywitchin.com/2008/08/23/kitty-rant-if-i-can-have-an-arc-of-1-at-hair-fair-why-cant-you/) or at my sister Chey (http://cheyennepal.blogspot.com/2008/07/arc-discrmination.html). My girlfriend Skinkie, who designs jewellery, investigated into that matter and found ways to reduce the ARC of her creations: http://thedressingupbox.blogspot.com/2008/05/avatar-rendering-cost-jewellery-some.html

But all the time there were people claiming that the ARC has no meaning whatsooever, that the effect is grossly overestimated, and that it is doctoring on a symptom and not the cause of SL laggyness. My friend Tarissa found an interesting blog post, that seems to debunk the myth of ARC = lag.

"Technically, ARC is supposed to measure the computational requirements of rendering a specific avatar with a specific attachment combination. But, it does this in abstract parrots — meaning that it’s units do not correspond directly to any computational power measurement I know of — and the abstract parrots fly wherever they damn well please."

says Rika Watanabe, and continues to line out the experiments she made with high-ARC-objects, that actually bring down the rendered frames per second (FPS) only marginally. She concludes:

"So in effect ARC does little more than promote people competing who can get it higher, and causes lynch mobs when the lag is actually results from poor server performance or excessive numbers of avatars on screen."

The full article can be found here: http://rikawatanabe.wordpress.com/2008/08/27/arbitrary-rage-cause/

I think further investigation is needed, before ARC is used to discreminate even further. I also think ARC actually distracts from the real issue - that the SL grid is not really scalable and has some inherent design flaws. It's ridiculous that a sim crashes when there are 80 avatars on it, and it is ridiculous that an empty sim gets attributed the same CPU power like a full sim. Assigning a fixed number of CPU's or servers to a sim is not exactly scalable.

And let's not forget that scripts and uninspired use of textures have a huge share on lag as well. Sim owners are better advised to streamline their scripts and tune down their textures than to discreminate against high ARC avatars.

And no, I don't know the ARC of my avi - never bothered to check.

Update 1: My ARC for my typical outfit is 1054.
Update 2: You can switch off rendering of all other avatars via Advanced -> Rendering -> Types -> Character - that is pretty antisocial but will make you move smooth even in laggy sims

Shapeshifter

After my newbie days, I created my own shape. I wanted it to be a rather natural shape, because I found the gazillions of other males running around in Conan the Barbarian like shapes rather funny, sometimes even pathetic. Of course I idealized my shape a bit, but all in all it was quite OK, and I got the occasional compliment for it.

Lately, however, I saw more and more things where I did not like my shape anymore. Most notably my hands and my upper arms, who seemed oversized to me. Pondering this for a while, I finally asked my friend Seikatsu if she could help me adjust it.

It took us almost an hour to go through all the settings, tweak a little here, adjust a little there. Often a change of only 3 or 5 notches made a difference. I got granted a bit more hips and some love handles, and in turn had to give up some shoulder width. Each of the individual changes was subtle, so the end result is not drastically different from my old shape, but significantly more real than before.

Plywood Man featured on Kitty Witchin

When Kitty O'Toole announced her review policy some days ago, I could not resist to drop her my Plywood Man (OnRez, SLX), knowing exactly it's not even remotely what she usually features on her blog.

She very openly and in her usual witt(ch)y style describes how she felt when she opened the folder, and how she felt being inside Plywood Man for a day.

Strange visit at the office

There's gold on your friend's list! I rediscovered so many great people on my list lately, so when I saw Mindy Runo logging in - I had not talked to her in months - I shot her an IM and mentioned we should talk more. Unfortunately, she did not remember who I was, and asked for a TP. Last time I met her she was a human/bunny hybrid with a sword. Well... bunny she still is...

Good hair day

The first "real expensive" thing I bought was prim hair. I harvested money trees for weeks, sent my avatar camping while I attended to other things, went to events where prizes were given out (preferably when there was a CampMaster in the vicinity as well), and finally bought, after long consideration, "Spike Brown" by Adam and Eve (~250L$).

For a while now, I felt that it was time for a change. As an experiment I put on a freebie hairstyle I still had in my inventory. The hair was more messy, and pitch black. I got all kind of reactions along the lines of "I liked your old one better" (Tina) as well as "It was about time you changed it" (Sonne). So I kept on looking, trying demos, browsing blogs. But the male hairstyles I found were all either extremely dull and boring (think "Ken"), or were intended for broad shouldered warrior/barbarian type of avatars with a glistening sixpack under their leather coat. In short: not at all what I looked for.

Before Sonne turned her back on me, we've been looking for hair at FNKY/Cake, where I saw a hairdo explicitly listed as "unisex". I went there with my talented photographer friend Gina the other day, who was looking for new hair as well, and she in fact bought the style called "Rumor" and it looks great on her. That made me thinking. A hairstyle that works both on men and women. Hmmm....

And I started to look into the female hair sections of the shop. And a world opened up for me. Of course not all female hairstyles work for a male avatar. I did not even bother to try any long haired, ponytailed or curly styles. But there is a whole lead of great short hair styles available, and a lot of them worked on my avatar. Cake's "Rumor" and "Dawn" by Adam and Eve were among my favourites, but in the end I settled for "Luth" bei Elika Tiramisu Designs (ETD).

The other day I told all this to Elusyve, and she smiled and surprised me with having the same hairdo in her trademark red. I took the opportunity for a photograph, so you can see it really works on both of us.

Bottom line: Guys, don't be afraid of looking at female prim hair! And a message to hair designers: you are missing an opportunity here - offer suitable hairstyles either as unisex, or put them up in the male section too!

Plywood Man for sale

My wise older sister Chey gently (ahem) nudged me to put some of the items I developed in the past up for sale. Being notoriously good at not finishing things, I used my involuntary sick-leave to tidy up some of the projects. The first item, which will be availabe both in Chey's new shop Flights of Fancy as well as on OnRez, is the full avatar Plywood Man. I created that one when sculpted prims were introduced, as a hommage to the old style prims. Enjoy!

Evolution

Downtime. And I'm at home on sick leave. Arghhh.... (or, as my lovely sister Chey puts it: "We're not addicted... we can stop anytime..."). I used the time to organize my SL projects on my harddrive, and doing so, found some old pictures! A while ago Chey held a rez-day party for Xubi, herself an me, and she asked me for old pics. If only I had them by then. OK, here we go:

Me, 4 weeks old, newbie skin, newbie clothing

Preparing for St. Patricks Day

The first (and last) piece of clothing I made in SL when I was 6 months old.

The skeleton avatar I used quite often, nicely demonstrating the notorious transparency bug.

My first office in SL (more or less exactly 10 months after I joined), for 50 L$/week including 50 prims.

Me and Chey skydiving at Abbots Aerodrome. The jumpsuit is out of a freebie box, and I wore it quite a lot before I made my "Bob the Builder" outfit. This photo is older though.

Shaved and collared

BDSM and Dominance/submission lifestyle are very widespread in SL. Among my friends, there's a whole assortment of Dommes and slaves. I personally looked at it with some interest, but never felt really inclined to join either side. However on Monday an innocuous side comment turned out to become a rather long and intense discussion, with the consequence that I became the slave of my friend Kim, or rather my Mistress Kim as I should say now. Neither of us has any prior experience, and we'll see where it leads us. One of her first orders was to get rid of my body hair, and last night she collared me.

Update: Now with image
Update 2: Experiment stopped after 2 weeks. Seems that neither Kim nor myself are really Mistress and Slave "material"

Goodbye, Bob the Builder

During my SL youth, when I roamed Waterhead, some kind avatar gave me a box full of clothing, and I picked an outfit which I considered back then as "not so bad". Soon enough I found out that the social hierarchy in SL is not the least based on your appearance (see Dandellion's post for a good explanation), and I invested my first few Lira ... er... Linden$ into some outfit. Robin "Sojourner" Woods flannell shirt was the first item I bought, a tee I created myself, I spent a week sorting through my freebies, I bought shoes and finally some stuff by Bro'Gear. Only my trademark visor - almost the first thing I built myself in SL - stayed. This outfit was a major improvement, though it got dubbed "Bob the Builder" by some.


Though I can build and script - probably better than the majority of avatars - it turned out that I pursued a different career path. I became an entrepreneur, actively selling services to some of the major contributors in SL. The hands-on builder outfit seemed almost preposterous, and it did not reflect my developing interests anymore. My recent side trips into the Neko and Vampire subculture - both very fashion conscious - and my mostly female very fashion conscious friends, did (unknowingly) their part to make me interested in male fashion and outfits. So let me introduce my new outfit - Urban Stindberg - a much more mature, and a tad darker appearance than Bob. I still might to use Bob from time to time. The outfit is still close to my heart. But I am looking forward to the adventures Urban Stindberg will experience.

They are among us

Seeing the occasional grey ruthed avatar is a familiar sight in SL. However this formation was rather bizarre, so I took a photo.




The next day I encountered this group of Aliens in Temenos. I immediately recognized them as Asgard from Stargate, but they denied. The rightmost female alien complained loudly about her stiff nipples (uh, the bad word) and considered buying some undies.

Winning contests

After having won "Best in formal" with my beloved Meow a few weeks ago, I returned to the Butterfly Lounge a few days ago for "Best in Beachwear". I figured that everyone would come in bikinis or shorts, so I put on my scuba gear and as a consequence won the contest. It helped that I was the only male as well, but the Ladies said I'd have probably won even with more competition.