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The Winged Girl Blog

~ Kate Amdahl on Second life culture, fashion, and meaning

The Winged Girl Blog

Monthly Archives: October 2016

Steampunk Halloween is Coming!

26 Wednesday Oct 2016

Posted by Kate Amdahl in fun

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Tags

castle, cds, confederation of democratic simulators, dungeon, events, halloween, party, schloss, second life, steampunk

I’m still working on my costume, but I’m most of the way there. You can’t see the clockwork key in my back from this angle, though.

This Saturday from 1-3pm SLT, the Confederation of Democratic Simulators will host a big “Ghouls and Gears” steampunk Halloween party in the dungeon of Schloss Neufreistadt (New Free City Castle, in English) (don’t worry: people in the CDS generally speak English, not German). Here’s the SLURL: SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Neufreistadt/235/191/194

DJ Squishy Paine will spin from 1 – 2 pm SLT, followed by Naftali Torok, live, from 2 – 3 pm SLT.

Come! Wow us with your steampunk Halloween costume! Dance, laugh at the spooky gadgets, and check out the castle! The CDS is a beautiful, multi-sim build full of great people. I dare you not to like it.

Steampunk Halloween poster

^^^\ Kate /^^^

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More Radegast: Fun Hanging Out With Scrambled Friends

24 Monday Oct 2016

Tags

cds, friends, Han Held, lilith ivory, radegast, rocking chairs, rosie gray, Tanoujin Milestone

Radegast doesn't support mesh, so it makes viewing friends more fun! (It's still a great tool, though.)

Radegast doesn’t support mesh, so it makes viewing friends more fun! (It’s still a great tool, though.)

Posted by Kate Amdahl | Filed under fun

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How to Meet People in Second Life

24 Monday Oct 2016

Posted by Kate Amdahl in Second Life culture

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

clubs, destinations, groups, meeting, people, second life, Socializing

On the Second Life Community forums, someone recently asked

I would like to get social and meet people but i dont really know how to do that !?

Are there famous places/destinations that people hang out ? Is there a search engine inside SL that can find places based on population ? Thank you!

I realized I had some suggestions about this for newer residents. In case you’re interested, here those are.

First, importantly, Search is your friend! She’s a lazy friend with limited skills, but she’s mostly there when you need her, and ultimately she really does want to help.

Muddys

Dancing at Muddy’s Music Café

Where to go to meet people depends on what you want to meet people for. If you just want to be with some other folks and don’t mind if there’s not a lot of connection or (depending) conversation, there are plenty of dance clubs where you can go, and that would be the thing to search for. Use the drop-down in search to narrow your results to places only. Some of these clubs, at times, have people at them who want to meet other people or have conversations. Others will mostly have people dancing and perhaps yelling things out from time to time (“Hi”, “Great song”, “Woo-hoo”, that kind of thing) but not much in the way of actual connection.

If you have special interests that you want to share with people, search for groups using that same search feature. Some of the groups will be old and defunct, and there’s no good way to tell, but often groups with a lot of people are active. Some of these groups have places connected with them, like churches or nude beaches or residential areas.

If you just want to have sex, I suppose you know what to type into search for that, but if you want to meet someone romantically without it suddenly getting grabby, try Frank’s or Sweethearts Jazz, both of which tend to be full of single avatars seeking other single avatars for a dance and maybe more. Frank’s is formal attire, and Sweethearts is formal or semi-formal. These are mostly for straight people, though there are some other destinations that work well for other orientations.

While you never know whether you’ll meet someone or stand around looking until you give up, for an example I stopped in at Frank’s just long enough for people to rez and for me to take this picture, but it was still enough time for a very tall, newish guy (not pictured) to politely introduce himself and ask me to dance.

franks

Some resis standing by the dance floor at Frank’s

For conversation or connecting with other people, try discussion events, or just teleport to a hub, like London Town, where there are always a lot of people milling around.

People watching in London Town

People watching in London Town

If you want to meet people serendipidously, go to one of the more popular “wander around” destinations like DaVinci Gardens or whatever’s being touted by Linden Labs currently in the viewer. Just go wherever things look interesting and see if you run into anyone.

Taking a free Dragon ride at DaVinci Gardens

Taking a free Dragon ride at DaVinci Gardens

If you want to stack the deck as you wander, use the button that looks like a dot inside several circles (on the Linden Labs viewer that you’re probably on if you’re new), which brings up a local map. Try to move your green dot closer to the other green dots you see, if any, since each one is a person. If you see a little green V or ^, that means the person is above or below your level.

Looking at the radar at DaVinci Gardens

Looking at the people radar in DaVinci Gardens

None of these methods are sure-fire, I’m sorry to say, but if you keep at it for a little while and do things you’re genuinely interested in, you’ll start running into intriguing people and can build a list of friends. Then, whenever you log on, you can just see if any of your friends are around and available.

Good luck!

^^^\ Kate /^^^

I’m Here, but I’m Not Really Here: Radegast

21 Friday Oct 2016

Posted by Kate Amdahl in Tips and tricks

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Tags

mesh, radegast, second life, tools, viewers

radegast

I recently discovered Radegast, a Second Life (and other virtual world) client designed mainly for things like chatting and inventory. It’s a handy tool if you are on a computer that might not have the power to run Second Life properly, or if you’re logging in for something text-only and don’t want to be distracted by the pretty world.

When I use Radegast, I feel like I’m in Second Life but not in Second Life, kind of like I have a phone connection there.

Even so, it does have a 3-D viewer so you can see where you are and click on things. I don’t think it’s mesh-friendly, though. As you can see from the picture, it has a little trouble rendering me in my Maitreya body and a fitted mesh dress from Meli Imako. I don’t recommend it for scenic walks.

^^^\ Kate /^^^

One of the Smartest Things I’ve Ever Heard of a Virtual World Company Doing

18 Tuesday Oct 2016

Posted by Kate Amdahl in Second Life culture

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

culture, greeters, high fidelity, philip linden, philip rosedale, project sansar, second life, society, virtual reality, VR headsets

On New World Notes, Hamlet Au reported that High Fidelity is hiring people to work 4-hour greeter shifts in a virtual world. Here’s the link to the ad.

high fidelity

High Fidelity, if you didn’t already know, is the next-generation virtual world by a team assembled by Philip Rosedale, aka Philip Linden, aka the creator of Second Life (who is no longer at Linden Labs. Linden Labs is creating a new virtual reality experience called Project Sansar).

Project Sansar Advertisement

Project Sansar Advertisement

Why do I think this is incredibly smart? Because it’s a direct and well-conceived approach to addressing probably the two biggest problems from which a fully operational virtual world can suffer: the learning curve for getting comfortable in that world, and the disconnect between the developers and corporate types on the one end and the actual users on the other.

A greeter can prevent all kinds of frustration and wasted time as new users get used to their surroundings. (For instance, on Second Life resi confessed recently in a Second Life forum post that for weeks after she joined, she assumed she had to park her avatar somewhere safe when she was logged off so that no one would do anything harmful or disruptive to it.)

A presentation on High Fidelity

A presentation showing off High Fidelity

A greeter can also gather unstructured, open feedback on the virtual world experience, quickly getting up to speed with resis’ joys and frustrations, and so act as a crucial link between residents and those who run the world.

None of this means I’ll be racing to join High Fidelity (or Project Sansar, for that matter). The most important things to me about Second Life are my friends, the social scene, my home in the CDS, and secondarily, my wardrobe. I’m certainly not planning on getting a virtual reality headset any time soon. None of those are going to be easily replicated in another virtual world, so for the immediate future, I plan to stay where I am, though I’ll probably explore these new worlds at some point before too, too long.

^^^\ Kate /^^^

Gallery

Scenes from My Combination Housewarming and 10th Rezday Party

12 Wednesday Oct 2016

Posted by Kate Amdahl in fun

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Tags

antaeus aeon, cds, confederation of democratic simulators, gospeed racer, housewarming, lilith ivory, party, pip torok, rezday, Robby Paule, rosie gray

This gallery contains 22 photos.

Last Friday I held a housewarming party for my new home in Alpine Meadow and made it also a tenth …

Continue reading →

A Better Way to See in Second Life

10 Monday Oct 2016

Posted by Kate Amdahl in Tips and tricks

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

camera, camera angle, camming, over the shoulder, second life, viewer

Thanks to Kat Feldragonne on her A Kat and A Mouse blog, I recently read this five-year-old post by Penny Patton that explains not only what’s subtly wrong with the default camera angle in Second Life, but how to improve it! She also offers a great trick for camming around while moving. It’s about 6 steps, and not very complicated (but double-check that you’re entering the right numbers so that you only have to do it once). The instructions are written for the Linden Labs viewer, but they should be very similar or identical in other viewers.

I don’t know about you, but it never occurred to me that I didn’t like the default camera angle in Second Life…but as soon as Penny mentioned it, I realized that things I’ve found frustrating, like not being able to see in small spaces and sometimes having my camera stuck outside a wall or something when I’m on the other side, are due to this camera angle problem! Compare these pictures of me with the default camera angle compared to using the “over the shoulder” approach Penny offers.

Original view at my front door

Original view at my front door

Modified view at my front door

Modified view at my front door

It’s not just the practical things: the improved view angle makes me feel part of the scene instead of like I’m looking down on myself from above (go toward the light, Kate!). It’s more personal, more you’re-actually there.

Original view in a sculpture park

Original view in a sculpture park

Modified view in a sculpture park

Modified view in a sculpture park

Does this really make a big difference in my Second Life experience? I don’t honestly know. I think it makes a difference, but it’s so subtle. Well, but I will say that at my housewarming/10th rezday party over the weekend, it worked very well. Want to try it? Comment or post and let me know how it went! If you post about it on your blog, let me know so that I link or repost.

^^^\ Kate /^^^

UPDATE: Nalates Urriah provides more information and links to an easier way for Firestorm users to change their view settings here. She has a detailed post from a few years back (still applicable) here.

Five Things Not to Love About the New Outfit Gallery Feature

05 Wednesday Oct 2016

Posted by Kate Amdahl in fashion

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

clothing, outfits, outfits gallery, second life

Since fitting myself up with a Maitreya body, I do take pictures of all of my outfits and keep them handy to decide what to wear, and I find that much easier and more rewarding than looking through named outfits. I blogged about this a little while ago. Now, Linden Labs has introduced a feature where you can preview all of your outfits right in the outfits tab, the Outfit Gallery. I should be delighted, shouldn’t I? But I’m really not. Maybe I will be with a future version?

picture by Jeremy Linden

picture by Jeremy Linden

I have a few specific things I don’t like about the Outfit Gallery, and they loom large enough that I don’t want to use it at all. Here’s what they are:

  1. The gallery comes up automatically now instead of your outfits listing, so if you aren’t using it, or haven’t uploaded your pictures yet, it just gets in the way. What’s worse, there doesn’t seem to be a setting to get it to bring up the normal listing instead! That’s an extra click every single time I open my outfits tab, which happens, um, pretty often.
  2. Maximum picture size: 256 by 256 pixels, so it’s like having a set of commemorative postage stamps of your wardrobe. I understand they don’t want to store a whole bunch of large, high-resolution photos, but if you want to see how you look in something, the best way is to see a large, high-resolution photo.
  3. You have to pay L$10 per outfit to save or upload your outfit picture. I admit, that’s not very much, but for tiny pictures in a built-in feature, that seems unnecessary. I understand the L$10 upload cost, to prevent people from uploading anything and everything and storing it forever on Linden Labs’ servers, but this situation seems like it could and should have been an exception.
  4. No zoom. The size you see is the size you get.
  5. You can only use it for outfits, not for individual items. This works fine for me for clothing, which I generally prefer to assemble into outfits anyway, but I’ve added a gallery of hairstyles (easily assembled from the outfit pictures I already had!) and will soon add one of shoes in Google Drive, and I can’t do that with this feature.

It seems like a nice idea. I appreciate that they’re paying some attention to the problem, anyway! Sigh. I may even try it, but I doubt I’ll find it a reasonable substitute for my high-resolution PNGs on Google Drive.

A few outfits in Google Drive

A few outfits in Google Drive

There are two things about it I like better than my current system though. First, of course, is that it’s integrated into the viewer. I don’t have to open a separate browser window and switch back and forth.

The other is subtle but useful: you can probably think of it if you compare the two images above for long enough. The Outfit Gallery has vertically-oriented (portrait) pictures, well-suited to showing thumbnails of entire outfits, while Google Drive shows pictures in horizontal (landscape) orientation, with no setting I can find to change that. As you can see, that makes previewing from thumbnails occasionally difficult. I could solve that by not uploading photographs cropped for vertical orientation, I suppose. That’s probably the smart move!

Have you used it? What do you think of it?

There’s a Party, and You’re Invited: Dancing, Parachutes, Fireworks, and Hot Air Balloons

03 Monday Oct 2016

Posted by Kate Amdahl in fun

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

balloons, events, fireworks, housewarming, parachutes, parties, rezday, second life

As you might know if you’ve seen some of my recent entries, I’ve just moved into a pretty little house by a waterfall in the beautiful Confederation of Democratic Simulators Alpine Meadow sim. To celebrate, I’m having a Housewarming/10th Rezday party Friday, October 7th, from 3:30 to 5:30 PM SLT, and you’re invited.

Disclaimer: not a picture of the actual party, which after all hasn't happened yet!

Disclaimer: not a picture of the actual party, which after all hasn’t happened yet!

By “you” I don’t mean just anyone (it’s certainly not the kind of thing I’d put in the events listing in Second Life search), but honestly, if you’re interested enough to be reading my blog, you’d be welcome there, and it would be fun to meet you. Please do bring friends or plus-ones if you’d like to.

As for things to do, there will be music from DJ GoSpeed Racer of Kona Radio, couples and singles dancing, a hot air balloon ride, free parachutes, wonderful scenery, amazing people, and fireworks. Let’s hope the fireworks don’t hit the hot air balloons and send them plummeting to the ground in flames…although wouldn’t that look amazing?

While you’re at the party, peep around at the CDS, a real community in Second Life with its own government. It’s a collection of delightful people living in a delightful place.

To get to the party, click here for a landmark, or just IM me (Kate Amdahl) in-world, and I’ll send you a teleport invitation.

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