On Rod Humble’s ascent as CEO of Linden Lab

Marketing SL as a platform that you can do anything with reminds me of how skin moisturizers are marketed towards women…lol. Fight 7 signs of aging with one product…only that kind of marketing tactic didn’t really work with a product like SL. So they tried to leverage on the business aspects when Mark Kingdon was at the helm.

Now they are trying SL as a gaming platform. We’ve yet to see if this works, but really, with the exception of beauty products, categorizing something and putting them in a box and focusing on ONE of the features are what usually works in marketing most products. Some people get attracted to a product’s main selling point, and nothing else. Those are the kind of people the Lab are trying to grab hold into now.

What makes for us already in SL? I hope Rod Humble will not abandon the residents and take care of us and let us participate. I’m all good with their marketing spin, as long as they don’t lose sight of us that already see SL as beyond gaming and vampires and so forth.

All in all, SL is a great product, it can deliver more than advertised, BUT when handled improperly, it devolves as a bad product. We are slowly into that devolving process, when the Lab placed all their eggs in one basket, but it’s not yet too late to make miracles…:)

I believe no matter who the CEO will be, ultimately WE are the experience. If they want to go to that road, well and good, but I think they should take advantage of the residents’ passion by engaging with them more so that the residents can take care of the other SL aspects that they don’t choose to highlight for now.

Trill’s Cause

Here’s my arts article for AVENUE Magazine entitled “Trill’s Cause”. Trill is an awesome painter whom I met through the fabulous Filthy Fluno in Artopolis last year while going through his fantastic gallery. Trill Zapatero’s paintings are very beautiful and unique, but for this article I’ve encountered another side to her, which is discussed in the article.

http://static.issuu.com/webembed/viewers/style1/v1/IssuuViewer.swf

Open publication – Free publishing – More trill zapatero

So I hope you all get to read it and enjoy it This will be my last article for now, until I find enough time for writing and interviewing people online again. I still manage and look for content for AVENUE Magazine though, but writing needed to be set aside for a while…:(

$GaNKeD$ All that Jazz with my old Last Call Outfit

I don’t usually get review copies, nor blog a lot. Imagine my surprise when I got a pack from $GaNKeD$ designer Misty Merryman’s lovely designs for GIA’s Accessories Fair. I’ve already seen several reviews for $GaNKeD$’s other offerings, and with what I’ve seen, these accessories contributes a unique and eclectic facet to a wardrobe. 

In this blog however, I chose one of $GaNKeD$’s necklaces to complement a really old but very wonderfully made outfit by the original designer of Last Call, Ginny Talamasca. The Aida dress is one of the oldest items in my inventory, a particular favorite of mine, which goes well with my hair, Exile’s the Aphrodite, a purchase from last year’s Hair Affair. The hair is a fabulous updo with enough hair sweeping elegantly to the sides that makes it very flattering  and elegant to wear.

What you see me wearing is the All that Jazz Necklace, a cute necklace adorned with ribbons and shimmery balls that adds glamor to what could have been a plain outfit. The All That Jazz necklace adds to the girlishness of this outfit, with its ribbons complementing the lace and the delicate texturing of the outfit.

I also got myself a new pair of eyes. It seems that I have been wearing Miriel far too long already, and upon reading many blogs about Poetic Color, I gathered up enough courage to go buy a pair.

They say the eyes are the windows to the soul, and by golly, these pair of eyes epitomizes the saying to the letter. Delightfully realistic and soulful, these eyes are very reflective and wonderfully deep, one could easily get lost in them.

Not in the picture, but the shoes I chose to wear all this with is the AOHARU Walk Suede Laceup sandals in white.

By the way, GIA’s Accessories Fair will run until March 27, 2010. You can find all the participating stores here and here. This event will benefit the Relay for Life in SL by the American Cancer Society.

Winter Casual outfit # 2

I was inspired by Vixie Rayna’s column in AVENUE Magazine that featured a fur jacket by AOHARU and Shai’s Crocodile skin boots in red (only 50L$ when I bought it a couple of Fifty Linden Fridays ago). These two, together with Armidi jeans, Armidi’s Schuyler top, Zaara’s bracelet, and Caliah Lyon’s Pearl earrings made a great outfit. Giving the outfit an eclectic look was this belt, a group gift from Lion skins. It had feathers and other sorts of adornments with this Native Indian feel to it.

I took these photos outside my house. I rezzed four of Botanical’s trees and lined them up in front of the house. I was going to hang a Christmas lantern, or a “parol” as it is called in my RL country, but I only have limited prims in my plot and I don’t want to be a bad tenant to my landlady who has been really nice!


Mainland living has its perks and peeves, I’ve had strangers with creepy profiles coming into my parcel looking around and being rude, but I get that too back in Costa Rica sims, only that this man I encountered in Mainland rudely entered my house and looked around. He said the door was open but I said that wasn’t an excuse to just go in.  Geez!

Winter dressing A-Z

Red has always been associated with Christmas, and a white winter has never been colorful and festive with people wearing anything red to mark the holidays.

In this place where I live in real life, we don’t have Autumn or Winter…so I don’t have much practice creating outfits in that theme, but here I am trying anyway. Reading enough fashion blogs and looking at runway shows for inspiration, I came up with this pretty ensemble comprising of Armidi, Dela, Second Wave Apparel, Maitreya, Tesla and Zaara.

Wearing this outfit is makes me feel sophisticated, ladylike,and very chic, as if coming out of a building and getting ready to hail a taxi to go home. Or go for coffee with friends. Or go on a date.   The red coat goes very well with the different elements of this outfit, which I decided to put eclectic touches by mixing elements of lace and funky graphics.                         

The inner blouse is a part of Sioxie Legend’s Tuxedo dress that has rich and intricate lace embellishments on it, and matching it with Zaara’s modern black leggings with a pattern of crazy splashes seems not a bad idea. 

The charming shoes from Tesla complements the rest of the outfit really well. Tesla’s shoes are fun, flirty, and never complicated to wear.

I was really satisfied with the end result and decided to take photos.Unfortunately, I am in my laptop, and I have a pretty lousy connection. So I made a big risk of maxing out the sliders and putting the graphic setting to Ultra, fiddled with the Windlight presets, and snapped away. The initial result was okay enough, and I decided to practice my little skills in editing photos until I felt somewhat satisfied with the result. 

A little bright, but not too bad,I think.

A Piece of Candy’s latest group Gift: Tilly

A Piece of Candy always gives great gifts every month and I always look forward to them. Candy Enoch makes great outfits and separates that looks great along with her other stuff and among other designers’ works as well.

This group gift comes with socks too and some other items, but this charming blouse is my current favorite…:)  JCNY, Zaara, and Ryker Beck (not sure if you can see her fabulous belly ring that I was wearing in the photo though) were my chosen accessories for this outfit, with my shorts coming from Armidi.

I don’t usually post my outfits, I’m not a great stylist nor was I set out to become a fashionista inworld, but as a woman in SL, you get into that eventually and along with it a desire to share your finds from the grid.

Going on to other news, if you have been one of the few who actually follow my blog, I’m sure you noticed some changes. I have also gained some time again to be able to blog, so I hope you look forward to whatever random tings I could be rambling on about…:) Thanks for being a great sounding board!

Penny pinching has its rewards :)

Sometimes cleaning your inventory and avoiding shopping for a couple of weeks can be rewarding because of the new outfits you end up putting together in order to have something “new” to wear. I know for most of you this is already passe, but combining new and old items is a new thrill for me lately. Putting together outfits is not something I usually do, being someone who prefers ready-made outfits pulled together for you to click and wear.

Nowadays its different, I am penny pinching in RL and earning for insurance and a health plan. So I left (in tears and sadness) Costa Rica Sims and moved to Chinle Island, then now settling in a comfy 1024sqm in a mainland sim with a really nice landlady.

Penny pinching in SL is definitely something I got used to and I intend to keep to this lifestyle, and perhaps someday, I’ll be back with my own parcel somewhere in Costa Rica.

Anyway, back to the outfit:

I was looking for something really elegant, but not too formal. A classic silhouette, sexy, but not too revealing…well, except for the cleavage…;)             

The hair is Maitreya’s Aisha, blouse is from Casa Del Shai’s Filipiniana collection, skirt is a newish purchase from Zaara, earrings is from CCD and the shoes is a classic T strap from FNKY!

Skin from League, my usual skin…:)

BBC fail article about Second Life

So BBC ran an article about Second Life and it wasn’t balanced at all, considering that they have approached M Linden (Mark Kingdon) for an interview and he has been able to answer the journalist’s questions extensively. 

The Lab has called for residents to comment and encourage us to write about our perspective on SL today, and here is my comment to BBC’s article:

On the contrary, there are more and more uses for Second Life than it was used before. Your article did a disservice to this network by not looking at both sides of the story, and to think I respect and find this news network credible and fair.

Sure, there are those who came in, found it boring, had a bad experience, etc., and logged off. Then they preach all sorts of evil about it and predict its death. But Second Life is still here…and growing–those who predict its end are the noisy minority.

As a writer in the virtual world (I also belong to a staff of a magazine based in Second Life that features articles from many categories like art, business, machinima, events, live music, fashion and architecture) I was able to make a small living out of Second Life, so my hours in it are more productive than usual. My work with it (AVENUE Magazine) also made me see that SL is NOT a STALE and STAGNANT world after all. It is vibrant, creative, eclectic, stimulating, fun, and a great social environment.

As one of the commentators above said, SL is really how you make of it–but I dare say that who you meet during the first hour is also dependent to your staying or leaving the world. I was lucky to find friends after several days of wandering around (I was patient enough) and I have more friends and contacts now more than 2 years later.

That said, there a lot of things to do to make SL more palatable to regular computer users, and Linden Lab is making strides in doing so.

That said, as a reader and a follower of your network, I hope to see more objective and balanced article about Second Life.

I am not sure if they will print that or not, so just thinking of posting it for documentation and for everyone to see I did my part…:D

On consumers and how to handle the content theft issue

Real life deals with content theft, copyright infringement, and piracy issues. Real life designers and brands are constantly hounded by problems of their items being imitated and sold into the black market or at third world countries where corruption can turn a blind eye and let them be sold rampantly in public. Movie makers are afraid that the movies they produce that takes a lot of money to make will only be taken by pirates who will illegally sell copies at a cheaper price.   

As Second Life opens up and becomes more accessible to people, SL imitates RL and the same problem lies deep in Second Life, and with a unique twist. There are facets of consumers in SL that are different and unique to the virtual world. There are consumers who don’t mind–as there are also in RL where there are people who don’t mind at all to buy fake Chanel because they just want to look trendy. Virtual or RL, there are such people, who do not mind the ethics or artistic license of it all. Hoodwinked they are not, THEY KNOW what they are buying is fake. There are also residents in Second Life who don’t care where the clothes they get for free come from–as long as they are free, and they look great without spending anything, and for as long as SL is “just a game” for most of them. They don’t login to be consumers, they are just here to check things out, explore, chat, flirt and maybe use a sexbed or two. I often talk to these kinds of people while randomly going to places. 


While I love the idea of raising our voices and being heard, there leaves to be the question of how to reach out to those kinds of people–OR if these kinds of people ought to be in the radar for Artist’s Voice or Stand Up! peeps or not. These sorts of people may know its wrong, but why would they care or mind? They haven’t invested anything inworld to care, no designer friends to worry about, no artists/creators in their Friends List that they can feel a glimmer of compassion for. Most of all, they don’t really equate virtual goods as real, the way most of us already do. Virtual goods are yet to be valued the same way as real items are valued. Despite the articles we read, the reality for many is still that there is no value in virtual goods. When people login SL for the first time, or casually, they expect things to be free.  


And even things change in the future and virtual goods are taken seriously, it doesn’t mean that the content theft/copyright infringement will end. It will just be in the background, a constant reminder that there are people who still choose this path of stealing content. The very best we can get and should be getting is cooperation from LL. But then again, we never know what their plans for SL are and how this issue will affect their plans.

My favorite outfit # 1

I’m not a fashion blogger, but my love for clothes in Second Life is just as immense as the next female avatar out there.  If I were to say how much I spend my money in virtual clothing, I’d surely get in trouble.

Every Monday, I’ll try to recall which outfits I like and document them so I can get a clear picture of what items I really like on my avatar.

First off, is this outfit from Bare Rose. Haruka Kish first wore it when she represented Japan in the Miss Virtual World competition. I really love this dress because of the way it was created, nice and flowy, it embraces my figure and brings out that Asian look and feel. The textures are finely detailed and I really like the shade of blue that June Dion used for this dress.

There’s no need for more accessories as this dress comes with a necklace, so I finished it off with a nice pair of Courtisane’s Devoue shoes in black.