My First Published Video

My very first published wee bit of machinima isn't the most fabulous thing ever, but it's a darn good start! View it in all of it's silent 22 second glory on Youtube!


Working on some longer stuff at the moment, but trying to gather all the props, etc., and also waiting on my spicy new spacenavigator. I can't wait to see the world with it!

New York Again

One of the many things I like about New York is that it's a big town with lots of activities and space for exploring but yet it has a small town feel. Folks here are warm and friendly - traits that are nurtured with all of the social opportunities we have throughout the week. I travel somewhat extensively, but I pop back to the house throughout the day, and often times I see a few dots on the mini-map and feel a bit comforted that there are people nearby - though not so close that I lack privacy of course.

The other day, I was in between projects and decided to take a walk and meet some other residents. There are almost always a few dots over in Hudson and since I saw some activity, I figured I'd start there just to poke around.

When I arrived, I found a few people dancing on the riverboat Club Idylls. I wasn't really in the mood for dancing so I continued on my way to the next dot on the map, a woman that I see practically every day in the sim one over from me. I thought it would be nice to introduce myself so I walked down the street to Harumotors and NYC Music Hall.

I started out in her car showroom where I admired some very nicely detailed sports cars and then TPed up to the club to say hello. Come to find out, she had noticed me on the map regularly also and was glad I stopped by. She was putting the finishing touches on the club, which she was set to open on Saturday.

The topic came up of my house and she said she thought she had broken into it previously to look around. When we did the math, it turned out she had broken in while I lived there (but at least she complimented me on my decorating, which I always welcome). Since we were confessing, I told her that though I hadn't actually gone into her house I had at least cammed inside and noted we shopped at some of the same stores. And then I confessed to stealing her car.

Remember my joyriding adventure a while back with the Mini-Cooper? Yeah, it was hers. (And just an update: I was informed by the lovely NY sim manager, Panacea Luminos, upon her reading my blog, that we do, in fact, have a jail, haha!)

We had a good chuckle but I assured her that I did park it back on the curb in front of her brownstone after my adventure (I swear I usually am a nice girl!). Apparently I was not the first to take one of her cars for a spin - they are VERY well detailed. People will sometimes just take off in her cars, drive them, then leave them somewhere. She even found one in a tree once. Her neighbor had borrowed one of her cars (with permission) and had had a tricky sim crossing and lost the car. Since I had nothing else to do at the moment, I told her I would go out with a scanner and look for it and report back if I found it.

It was last seen when crossing the Hudson-Triborough bridge, so I started out in the water there. I swam around 3 sims at varying depths looking for the car with no luck. But in New York even the water is pretty.

Swimming with the help of the Swimmer HUD. If you don't have this already you are missing out! I may blog about it soon but you can go ahead and buy it and start swimming the way it SHOULD be done in SL.

The bright sunny day turned into a beautifully cloudy afternoon

Having no luck in the water, I popped back over to the park in Triborough

I witnessed a lovely sunset on the coast

I was starting to get tired from all my searching but decided to give one last look over from the sky. While flying around TriBorough, I spotted a neat looking building off the waterway with what appeared to be art displayed on the deck. I had turned off my mini-map for a better view so when I landed, I was surprised to be greeted by "Hello Mathilda!"

My first reaction was embarrassment as I was still in my swim suit, standing in an art gallery. I certainly hadn't intended on being seen there by anyone and I felt very inappropriately dressed for the place. I turned around to find the artist proprietor standing there. I apologized for my attire and she ever-so-kindly waved it off. After introductions I learned that this was to be yet another venue in New York, Fat's Jazz, a jazz club/art gallery, which I found magnificent.

We chatted and I discovered that she had just moved here and was already enjoying the location. Now, I have only really begun to explore the intimidatingly vast world of art in SL, and have only found a handful of works that appeal to my tastes. But this woman's work is very, very nice. The colors are soothing to the eye and the compositions of the pieces easily absorb the viewer. I mentioned that we have a sort of warehouse-y art district over in SoHo and she was already familiar with it because a friend of hers recently opened a gallery there.

After all of my exploring of the day, I decided to give up on my car search and head home to enjoy the SL evening and reflect while sipping on my favorite new accessory, a pumpkin spice latte from {theosophy}.

The whole day left me very excited and even more thrilled to live in NY. We are quickly becoming an even more active artistic community with RL artists and musicians finding an accommodating environment here. In one day, I started at one club and ended up visiting two more that were soon to open in addition to the new art gallery of a very talented artist. With live performances, game nights, frequent dances, and art galleries and events, New York is fast becoming the place to be. I'm just sayin'...

The Practical Traveler

This next outfit is a great one for everyday use, whether you're building or shopping or just exploring. I have found that this a great go-to outfit in many scenarios, from parties to lounging around my house, and with a very low ARC and small amount of prim usage, you can wear this comfortably in any area and know that you are not contributing to the lag and don't have to sacrifice cuteness. The fact that you can get such a great realistic look using mostly just fantastically textured clothing layers is a tribute to all of the creators that made these items.

Again, ARC is different for everyone but I figure that whatever I'm getting is going to be at least close to what you will get with whatever your specs are. In other words, though the ARC may vary, I think you will still achieve a low ARC with this outfit (maybe even lower than mine!). My ARC baseline for this time is 43 when naked. Let's get started!

Click to enlarge pictures

With all prim attachments, inc. hair and shoes: ARC 504, 158 prim

Sweater attachments contain scripts but they have a self-delete feature and you can still edit in build mode after deleting

Without attachments, wearing jacket layer to get the bottom shirt part

Back view without shirt attachments

There are 4 total scripts for this outfit: 3 sweater prim resizers (collar and sleeves) and 1 hair script to change hat color. The hair script is not deletable but the sweater scripts are. However, the sweater is no copy so if you delete the resize script you will have to edit the prims manually in your build menu. 

Hair - Tiny Bird - Have You Forgotten - Deep Warm Black: ARC 161, 69 prims

Sweater - GizzA - Argyle Suit DarkCream Female: with all attachments: ARC 55, 7 prims

Pants - PROZAK - Fat Cords - Brown: no attachments

Shoes - In Her Shoes - Sneakers Brown: ARC 245, 82 prims

I would also like to give thanks to the creator of the sweater, Giz Seorn. When I went back to GizzA to purchase a dress and had a question, her partner, who was at the landing point, called her to me and she was very helpful. Gotta love great customer service!

Once again, the In Her Shoes are free, but I encourage you to tip the creator at the shop for providing you with good looking free shoes!

Also, this time I featured PROZAK pants and I will most likely feature PROZAK again because I love the pants and they are FULL PERM and FREE. I did some research to make sure they weren't copybotted and discovered that the creator, Amiya Kimble, generously provided the line of clothing free and full perm to the SL community. Some people will try to sell you a wholesale PROZAK pack (which includes pants, shirts, shoes, and tattoos), and I think it's pretty rotten to try to make a profit off of someone else's work, especially when it was meant to be free and full perm to start with. You can get the full PROZAK pack for FREE here on Marketplace.

These are some of my favorite pants in SL because they're good quality, versatile, and modifiable so you can adjust the length, flare, and other attributes to your tastes. For your convenience, I am providing a box of the pants free and full perm (as they are meant to be) at my jewelry store under the info board. Please do not sell these on Marketplace. It's just not nice to profit off of someone else's work, especially when it's not meant to be sold.

Enjoy the outfit; I sure do!

My First Live Dance

Art in SL is something all its own. I am a big fan of those who use this virtual space to express themselves and to provoke the senses of such a vast and diverse audience. That we have so much at our disposal in this metaverse opens up a wealth of human potential and I'm excited to watch our artistic futures unfold here. 

Through a twist of good fortune, I learned about an upcoming dance adaptation of Narnia, performed by The Dramatiques Performance Troupe. Even today as I reflect on what I viewed yesterday, I'm left with a great satisfaction. Animation is what quite literally moves us in SL and dancing seems to be getting more and more sophisticated as more animation artists and choreographers hone their skills. Narnia appeared to me a perfect example of SL technology at its best.

The Patch Thibaud Auditorium on Couture Boulevard provided an ethereal ambiance that suited the performance well. At one point, while the audience was getting situated, I counted 44 in attendance, but I know there were ultimately more.

(You can click to enlarge all of the following pictures)

Before Narnia began, we were treated to a short routine, Romeo and Juliet. The ambition of the scenery paid off, creating a more vivid setting than real life could naturally provide.

Already the motions of the dancers were stunning to me. Phenomenally synched, each movement was executed gracefully and on point.

And then Narnia began.

From here on out, I'm just going to post pictures to let the dancing and scenery speak for itself. I tried really hard to narrow down my shots but, really, it's hard to do justice to a live virtual dance performance with just a few quick shots.

 

The entire White Witch scene was mesmerizing.

After the performance, the cast welcomed us to a champagne reception on the property. When they announced that they will begin touring Alice in Wonderland in April, I eagerly subscribed to their update group. I'll see you there!

Let's Get Physical

Because I have a very slight obsession with virtual food, I have to keep an eye on my figure. Whether I'm relaxing with some yoga on my rooftop or exploring a sim at a leisurely jog, this outfit is one of my favorites. With a low ARC and a built-in delete script feature in the few prims it has, I can jump into a moderately trafficked area with little to no lag. And it's so cute!

I took a few of these pictures while exercising at the Breast Cancer Awareness Center in Triborough, New York. It is a place that works very hard for a good cause and it makes learning fun through a unique tour it offers.

Please note that the ARC I got from the Phoenix Viewer is approximate and may vary for you. If I'm naked my ARC is 16 if that gives you a baseline. Also, out of this whole ensemble only the clothing prims have scripts for resizing, but you have the choice of deleting those scripts and you can also edit the prims via build menu.

With all prim attachments, inc. hair and shoes: 482 ARC, 77 prims

Just hair and shoe prims: 336 ARC, 59 prims

Back View, no attachments

Back view with attachments

Excuse my bony ankles

Action shot!

Hair: Magic Trick by Tiny Bird, only 43 prims!
Pants: Camel Sports Pants by Gawk! 12 prims if you wear them all
Hoodie: Camel Sports Hoodie by Gawk!; 7 prims
Top: Camel Sports Top by Gawk!; no attachments
Shoes: Bows Bows Brown Suede by In Her Shoes, 8 prims each foot. All shoes by In Her Shoes are free, but I would like to point out that there is a donation box at the shop and I encourage you to tip if you are able. It is very generous of the creator to offer such great products for free and I think that should be rewarded!

Let Us Begin with Lag

Lag is just part of the Second Life experience and it always will be for folks who don't have the latest and greatest in computers. Complaining about it is like swimming in the ocean and complaining about getting wet. But still, it can be incredibly frustrating when you get locked in place and textures aren't rezzing. Sometimes even the most patient of us give up on going to notoriously laggy areas or events.

There is much debate on what really causes lag and it's true that it can be caused as much, if not more, by the user-side computer as the SL server side. Some blame scripts, some blame megaprims (at least the old ones), some blame gluttonous prim usage, and some blame the LL entity as a whole. It's hard for me personally to deny that at least scripts and an abundance of prims appear to play a big part in lag.

Now, I am a prolific shopper, as many of us are. I buy something almost every day: scripts, textures, sculpts, clothing, hair, and furniture are among my most often purchased (I also go on a skin demo binge every few months but never can find anything I like better than what I have). The bane - bane I tell you! - of my shopping existence is lag. I am usually careful enough to wear one of my many outfits with a low ARC before I go shopping, both out of consideration of others and in hopes that I may decrease my lag. But always - always! - some bastard shows up in a crowded store with a 9,000 ARC. And the majority aren't much better sporting 4,000+ ARCs. I think to myself, "surely they know that THAT hair and that necklace and that dress are primmy and/or chocked full o' scripts." (Quite frankly, I am baffled how anyone can even wear enough to get up to a 9,000+ ARC.)

But what if they don't know? Or what if they think higher prim count and scripts=better quality and are just all lag be damned? And the truth is that it's not really their fault, any of them.

 I admit that I will sometimes go for a primmy/scripty (P/S) rezzable item over a modest one because it just looks better. I go for realism with my virtual experience and that sometimes requires P/S stuff. But when it comes to what I put on my body, ARC plays a big role in where I spend my money.

I'm too long-winded to explain ARC so I will just direct you to this link so you can read about it. I'll still be here when you get back.

Got an idea now? Ok.

I'm all about minimizing ARC with my clothing. In fact, some of my outfits (minus the hair) are composed of nothing but layers, not a single prim attached. You will find that there are tons of cute shirts, jeans, shorts, and dresses that are wonderfully textured for realism. But how can you really be sure? It's not always obvious because the pictures of some clothing can be deceptive in that it can be hard to tell if there's a sculpt or flexi prim(s) attached. And if you look for the item on Marketplace, under prim count it says "0." What gives?

Whether you are rezzing something on the ground or wearing it, you are still introducing data onto the grid to be processed and that causes lag. For scripts, you can sometimes tell if something is scripted from the description, like if you are told you can resize or change the color of something. Fortunately, many of these items are copiable and contain kill features in the scripts so that you can for instance keep the original hair intact, but modify a copy to your liking and then kill the script to decrease lag when you wear it.

I would like to see creators beginning to list the prim counts for attachables like hair, clothing, shoes, etc. It makes no sense to me that it's not already. And I'd also like script information in the description. I try demos as often as I can before purchase, but often times the scripting is disabled in the demo so you can't get a real idea of what you're in for with the real thing.

I fantasize about a virtual world where people can look great without compromising the quality of the experience via lag. And I think it's possible - I've seen the amazing works of very P/S conscious creators.

To put a point on it, from time to time I will post pictures of outfits that I own with an ARC under 2,000 and even under 1,000 in most cases, along with the store names of where I got them. I promise that you don't have to compromise cute for quality. There is some really awesome stuff out there that will be kind to you and others.

Stay tuned!

I Love New York

I have lived in several places across the grid, including my own island, which I turned into a nature preserve. But that's not what I'm here to talk about.

I currently live in perhaps my favorite estate in all of SL (aside from my former island, though even there it's pretty close), owned by New York Healthlink, a RL organization that does some great work. On the estate, which is comprised of approximately 20 sims and growing, the hospital training building and the health information centers don't really stand out unless you're looking for them because, though they want the information available to the public, they don't want to make it overwhelming. Otherwise, it's simply a gorgeously designed region with some of the best quality builds available in SL today.

I personally live in a brownstone in Midstate, with my jewelry shop around the block across from the jazz club. One of the greatest things about the estate, aside from the realism of it all, is that it's so vast, with each sim a bit different from the other - more representative of the different regions of the RL state. On weekends my RL mom and I like to go exploring.

Each trip we see so much but are always left with the feeling that there's so much more to experience. We've gone boat riding, have ridden the train that goes across the whole estate, have shopped til we dropped, have bowled (I won!!), and have even ridden the sweet cyclone roller coaster - and I would never ride a roller coaster IRL.

Today we set off again, with no particular path in mind. We got in some stress relief boxing at the Breast Cancer Awareness Center in Triborough, had coffee in a cafe, stopped into a movie theater, checked out some art galleries in Soho, and climbed the massively tall lighthouse in Montauk, and seriously that staircase is not for the faint of heart!

Montauk Lightouse

While wandering around, I spotted what appeared to be a Mini-Cooper parked on the street in front of a brownstone. Now, the owner of the car wasn't the same as that of the brownstone, so I figured someone had left it there. I examined it to see if the keys were in and lo and behold! the car started.  Mom was a few streets over and I wanted her to ride with me so I crunched and crashed my way to her and it's a good thing you can't hurt prims because I would've been in serious trouble.

In fact, maybe I was already in trouble. Here I am crashing into buildings in a stolen car! I was a joyriding fool! As I made my way to mom, I noticed an estate manager nearby. So I hauled ass (as much as I could) and screeched up to mom, "get in quick!"

The estate manager got closer.

"Put it in gear Mildred," I shouted to mom from the driver side. "Get in now 'cause I gotta get outta here!"

Mom hopped in the car just as the manager walked by. She simply meandered past us and waved. "Good thing NY doesn't have a jail," I sighed with relief. I made my way back to where I stole the car with mom from the passenger seat making fun of my driving skillz the whole way. With a screech and the sound of breaking glass, I parked the best I could next to the curb and jumped out.

Mom and I decided to get our own car and travel that way as it would be a bit faster than running through the streets. Sim crossings were rough and proved to be the end of our journey, as you'll see.

This was a winding road on a cliff overlooking the ocean

 

At the Autism Awareness Center in Health Village in Western NY

Diabetes Center, Health Village

My jewelry shop in Midstate

Sim crossing into Hudson. It was my fault I hadn't built up enough speed first to race across!

So, if you've never been to NY HealthLink estate, I can't recommend it enough for a good time. I haven't even done half of the activities there. And if you're going there, why not start your trip at my lil ol' shop. It's as good as any other starting point, hehe 

Start here!

Virtual Reality

A couple of days ago I received a notice from the SL mailing list or whatever that they were featuring Egypt in the destination guide of attractions. The thought of visiting a virtual Egypt intrigued me with everything going on in real Egypt right now. So I did a quick purchase of a hijab on marketplace and put on some modest clothing (I didn't want to offend anyone) and headed over.

When I TPed in, I was met by more than a dozen people, many holding signs in support of either Mubarek or the protesters. Turns out I had TPed into a virtual protest in Tahrir Square! It was eerily quiet, though. Every once in a while, someone would say something about democracy or some other random slogan and then it went silent again. One person asked another why she supported Mubarek but didn't receive an answer.

While there I spoke to a CNN correspondent (Real or Virtual or the difference I don't know) and asked her what the place was like: had people been here all along? Did they talk more? Where are they from? She said she had only been the day before but that it was consistently populated. Indeed, the location is a landing hub for new avatars so there was a mix of protesters with signs and new folks doing the SL duck waddle. I'm sure they were looking around like "what the Hell??"

Out of curiosity, I asked where everyone was from. Three of us from the USA and one from Egypt. I IMed the Egyptian, asking if she was currently in Egypt and she said yes, with her family. This just after the announcement was made that Egyptians had gotten their Internet back. I told her that I was glad she had communication again with the outside world but she had gotten preoccupied helping a couple of new arrivals.

She thought they were both girls. She TPed us back to her house to help them with their skin and clothes. While there we got on voice chat (one of few times I've used that) and discovered at least one of the girls was a guy. I think the Egyptian lady became uncomfortable helping a guy out and felt confused so she TPed all of us to a different welcome area and disappeared.

But I was now there with two lovely folks from a Spanish business school, a guy and a girl. The guy certainly wanted to be a guy in SL and there had just been a miscommunication. I only had time to pass some hair to the girl before they had to go. They friended me and I allowed it, though I rarely do for strangers, because I always try to encourage newcomers into SL that are trying to blend RL and SL and I know that SL has a fairly steep learning curve.

So they left and someone else, noticing I was helping them, started asking me for help. And then another. After spending quite a while there I was finally able to get back home.

I sat on my couch, sipping tea, when I noticed a couple on the street outside and one shouted "I broke into it." After chatting them I discovered they were a recently married couple and they were interested in the brownstone I live in to move to their own sim. I invited them in for a tour and they were very thankful and polite. They said I helped them decide on it, but that was no surprise - my brownstone is truly one of the best builds I've ever lived in.

When they left I tried on my new zombie skin, but that's another story.

So what is "virtual" and what is real? I communicated, albeit briefly, directly with a woman in Egypt in a time when her nation is under the world's magnifying glass. And within just a short time of regaining Internet access, this woman decided to come into a virtual environment to interact with - even assist - other people from around the world. They are making history and we are standing right there in a virtual representation of the real forum. We spoke to each other and heard each other's voices. Isn't that real?

Have to start somewhere

My name is Mathilda Islay and though I make my home in the lovely estate of New York HealthLink, I travel a lot. I shop a lot. I build a lot. I think a lot. The blog name comes from my real and virtual businesses. I just pretty much name everything I do "JovianBay," be it my real life transcribing and copy editing services or my real and virtual lace jewelry - and the shop on Etsy.

I've been debating starting a blog for my Second Life experiences for a while. My biggest problem has been coming up with a theme. I want to do a blog about low prim and low scripted clothing to help do my part in decreasing lag. I want to do a blog about my adventures in machinima and digital media in general. And then I also want to document my travel and experiences in world, however helpful that may be to others. My indecisiveness has led to me not having a blog at all so this is my attempt to change that.

So there is no umbrella theme to this blog. I am just yet another person exploring the wonders of a virtual environment.

Pull up a chair.