SL Roller Coaster Ride from Kara Trapdoor on Vimeo.

A super cool SL Interpretation of the Cyclone roller coaster and very nice sim. (condensed ride for video) Visit here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/SOHO%20New%20York/190/37/34 or direct link here:
CycloneHere.

SLF Football-Heartland Cardinals

Pictured: Kara and team member, center: Knownhotti Aabye


Are you ready for some football? Well, I am. It's about time I updated on the status of my SFL cheer leading experiences. After quite some time with the Bengals team that never seemed to quite get off the ground with only a few players, one of our owners decided to back out leaving us to merge with the Heartland Cardinals, an established team also in need of players and cheerleaders. Journey McLaglen and Raubin Sachertorte joined forces forming what is today the Heartland Cardinals, a team with a full roster. The changes were many not only within our team but with SFL in general. The men quickly began practices and attempts to obtain more players until they signed their last few players just a couple of days prior to our first pre-season game last Saturday. The cheerleaders underwent some administrative changes, not without a bit of drama, but also pulled together with less than a week before game day a full group of eight girls for half time (up from 4 that was previously allowed) and an additional 6 on the sidelines. Rules changed and the cheer squads can now have up to 16 girls with 8 for half time and 8 for sideline at each game if desired or all are able to be present. I was very impressed that a song was picked, remixed to fit the time constraints, a routine developed and learned all within less than a week and come Saturday the team and cheerleaders felt pretty ready. I should not have had any doubts, as the boys played hard and led the game against the experienced Packers the entire game for a final score of 35 to 16. I was also impressed that so many of the men excelled in different ways. As for the cheerleaders, I was also proud of the end result with less that a week for that routine. One cheerleader crashed but had a quick recovery and found her spot, so all in all I'd say it was pretty good. I have watched several games and seen squads with crashed cheerleaders and empty spots and girls having a hard time moving to spots due to lag or some reason, so I was actually very pleased with our results and we had a lot of compliments. It's my understanding tweet.tv will be broadcasting their filming of the game and I hope they also captured us cheerleaders in that. I will post a link when/if I find it.

(Scoreboard photo courtesy of Knownhotti)

Pre-season has ended and Season games will start the beginning of December. At this point it's my understand that they are still mainly allowing only teams, special guests, and owners/players/cheerleaders of other teams in during games. After the initial game attempt at allowing anyone in and over 500 people trying to show up in the 3 sim area and the field scripts still with a few bugs, I guess they wanted to be able to be sure the games can be properly played before opening to full public again. At this point the games are fun to watch and it's very much like real football with the sportscasters announcing, the music and sounds, cheer leaders and of course the football players with their real plays actually participating live with their avatars. It's pretty impressive.

An added bonus to this team is that one of the owners has a bar called the Lonestar. Granted it's a country western bar, but they have "regular" music on Thursday nights and actually mix up the stuff other nights pretty well too with an ongoing crowd that is fun to hang around with. Above the practice stadium area and cheer leading practice field there is a platform that houses a really cool players club that includes a dance club area, Cardinals gift shop and a stadium seating theater area. We had a party Sunday night to celebrate the win Saturday and I really like that place a lot.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Heartland/153/224/22 or direct link here: LonestarHere.

Lonestar Dancing: Pagan, Kara, Kathy and Lilly

Happy Thanksgiving 2010

"Thanksgiving Day is a harvest festival celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Traditionally, it has been a time to give thanks for a bountiful harvest. While it may have been religious in origin, Thanksgiving is now primarily identified as a secular holiday.[1] It is sometimes casually referred to as Turkey Day."http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

(an exceptional sim: Tempura)http://slurl.com/secondlife/tempura%20island/127/220/65
TempuraHere.

The Need to Breed-Second Life Horses

Just shoot me now, as I have succumbed to the latest SL trend of horse breeding. Well, not technically as I only ever intend to keep two at a time max. I really have no clue why, after my bunny failure when one turned black in spite of all the love and food I gave it and freaked so put them back into the abyss of an inventory never to be seen again, that I thought I had to try the horses.

This horse business is huge in SL right now right on the heels of the bunny business and one friend told me she sold a special horse for about 30,000L---NO KIDDING. I really had no intent of getting horses, but I was looking at them and saw "Char" with the big beautiful green eyes and I was a goner. At 200L I thought I had a deal---that is until I decided she had to have a mate for company -enter randy old "Remington" whose "fervor" was way high and although I never saw them do "it" w/in a few hours Char was with child. This was of course after I spent a small fortune for food/water, stable, salt lick, snack, etc. No expense spared for my "horse's" happiness. They are not even as attractive as my real looking fake horses. You can ride them though. Anyway a few days later mama Char has this hay bale baby which I fully intend to NOT unpack into a foal. I missed the birthing or however that hay bale happened to be hanging from mama Char. Maybe I will let Char and Remington have a little more fun, make one more baby hoping for a diff sex this time then give the adults away before they eat me out of house and home and keep the babies unopened so they don't "die" in my inventory in case I get the whim to breed something again in the future. But then would that be incest? Virtual horse incest--what a thought--anyway if you feel the need to breed and nurture check out this trend that's been sweeping SL. I'm sure there will soon be a new SL breeding trend.

Addendum: Remington has been keeping Char so pregnant and making babies, that I studded him out last night so a friend could try for one of the special edition horses. What a guy.

Second Life User Names

Today I logged in to find more information about SL user names. I will just quote a note card I received: "Some of you may have already noticed this, but I found out just tonight that Linden Lab has finally done away with last names for avatars. Only single names are now allowed for usernames.

(Going off on a tangent: if you still really want a last name, it might be possible through one of the portals listed here: http://slnamewatch.com/portals.php)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
→ Why should business owners take note of this?
Stores with one-word names especially should take note.

I created a new avatar named POSEUR, which is also the name of my pose store. After I registered the new name/avatar, I did a search in-world for the term "poseur" and was surprised to see that my new avatar's profile was the very FIRST search result.

It's unfortunate, but there are some unscrupulous people out there who might see this as an opportunity to "smear" existing businesses by creating an avatar with a name identical to their stores. :( Because of this, I think it's a good idea to protect your business, and register a new avatar with your store's name. This way you retain control over what is written in that profile.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
→ How to create an avatar named after your store?

Simple, you're just basically creating a new alt account. Go to the secondlife.com website and go to the Join Now page (you may need to log out first). You'll be prompted to choose a name, and it will NOT give you the option to select a last name. Last names are now a thing of the past!

Choose your store name for your new alt, and go through the usual process of creating a new avatar. That's it!
----------------------------------------------------------------------
→ Are there some limitations?

Yes. You cannot put a space in your name, and your name must be 2 to 31 characters long.

Also, this might seem obvious, but you can't register a name if it already belongs to someone as their full name. For example, if you own a store named Chocolate Chip Mint and intend to register ChocolateChipMint, you're out of luck: there's already an avatar with the name ChocolateChip Mint."

So I'm really not sure I need to worry about this, but some people might. I have enough alts/names for a while I think. More information on names and how to use them to log in to different viewers now that thing have changed can be found here:
SLNamesHere. or use this: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Usernames

Second Life Hunts

I know I've posted about some fun hunts before with some direct links, SLurls, Websites and info., but rather than rework things I've found a good site to check .. see here: http://slhunts.wordpress.com/ direct link here: SLHuntsHere.

Some Of My Favorite Second Life Pictures

I made a short vid with some friends in a nice explore sim I found: slurl.com/secondlife/Krillian/199/241/2




Other mermaids: Kathy Nikolaidis and Lilly Juno.

The World Expo Shanghai SL Sims Closing Nov. 12

The World Expo Shanghai 2010 has come to a close and so will the sims Linden Labs graciously offered for the event. If you would like to catch them before they go then here is your last chance, as they close Friday Nov. 12, 2010. Island five has changed from the original, as it is current being used for another project previously blogged here. Special thanks to OPEN THIS END and Aino Baar without whose efforts this project would not have existed. For pics and direct links, more information and SLurls.. check back here: WorldExpoKarabloghere.

Pluto

"Surreal" came to mind when I visited the grand opening 10-17-10 of Pluto, an installation that will run October 17 through November 17th. Two great Portuguese artists, CapCat Ragu and Melio Minotaur exhibit their personal and poetic vision of the planet Pluto.
CapCat

At the opening I found CapCat and Melio in impressive costume avatars that are available for sale at the installation. I could not help but ask CapCat, a fellow Flickr friend of mine, a little more about the meaning of the presentation. She explained, "There is not a lot to say really, it's Pluto. She was the God of the underworld and the planet that is no more." She said, "It's our death installation, I guess, including decay, ghosts and flys." The exhibit actually seemed a bit beautiful to me with all the flowing light figures. I teleported up to Pluto where there were more Pluto ghosts flying around. This is an impressive exhibit difficult to describe but well worth the visit and some friends I dropped in were grateful for the lift, expressing their delight with the show also.

There were many attendees during the extended opening and as CapCat and Melio stood around chatting and blending into the scenery with their outfits, many of the attendees were also in various costumes. A couple even provided an impromptu fire and light show. The sim notecard states: "Come and Dream with Us." And that is exactly what I did.

Attendees included: Morghana Savira, Kimm Paulino, Storm Blauvelt, xendra lane, giovanna cerise, Korii Tiger, Shark Fallen, Gavin Zhora, Falco Preez, simba Schumann, Claudia Naire, SaveMe Oh, Takio Ra, Gattalia Rossini, Blanca Diesel, Ninhas Lupindo, Osis Feden, Wizardoz Chrome, Burk Bode, Maloe Vansant, Benjamin Hirons, Solkide Auer, Eupalinos Ugajin and riri Bazar, Lenz Bovarro, and Cafi Rang, among others.

Melio

Lady Hightower Memorial Rumble

Patrick taking a break with friends

The invitation for October 9 read: "Let us celebrate life with music and noise and dance. Let us "rumble" to remember Lady Hightower. Thank you all so very much on her behalf and in her memory. Let us celebrate as I offer these passages from the bible in prayer:
"There was a rumble and lightning and the sounds of the trumpet grew. Sing praise in the assembly of people. Community! Let us make music with tambourines and lyres....dance! Raise those who are oppressed with sadness and lift them up. Make music, sing for joy, and let the rumble be heard. I offer this tribute with you in honor of lady hightower. Amen."

Patrick Thorkveld along with Gwampa's 4 sim Dance Kamp
hosted a memorial to Lady Hightower's memory with a full lineup of some of Second Life's favorite musicians October 9th from 7am to 10pm SLT. Lady Hightower clearly was loved and respected by many in the SL community and especially close to her fellow musicians as evidenced by the fond sentiments and music they each provided in her honor. The day provided some closure and an opportunity for the community to come together supporting each other in this loss. Many of the musicians provided heart felt sentiments and selected songs specific to their memories of her, as well as some traditional memorial songs.

When I commended Gwampa Lomu for providing the venue, he stated, "I like doing this.. feels good to give back to the community" I also touched base with Patrick Thorkveld, Lady Hightower's partner SL and RL and he acknowledged the day was difficult for him, but said, this was a "a chance for the community to heal".

Lady Hightower's SL profile is still in the system seemingly as a lasting memory, so now a few quotes from Lady Hightower's profile as follows :
"One cannot have too large a party."
~Jane Austen, who obviously never tried to get into a crowded sim.
-Life itself is the proper binge.
But a good bottle of chardonnay is fun, too
-Fiction is not a dream, nor is it guesswork. It is imagining based on facts, and the facts must be accurate or the work of imagining will not stand up"

Attesting to Lady Hightowers popularity the sims remained full throughout the day as I continued to pop in and out.
The musical lineup included: 7:00 am prayer followed by
7:05 Wolfie Moonshadow, 7:20 am Russell Eponym, 7:32 scotty glaswing, 7:45 am Beth Odets, 8:00 am Bones Writer, 8:15 am shadez rhapsody, 8:30 am zachh cale, 8:45am Tempio Breil, 9:00am Tommie Scorpio, 9:14 am Bluemonk Rau, 9:30 digby smalls, 9:45am Gabryel Nyoki,10:00 Josie Anderton,10:12 Normrynolds Genesis,10:24 Samm Qendra
10:36 UKD BAND, 11:20 Sid Slade, 12pm-1pm Rockrose Full Band, 1:00 pm Mimi Carpenter, 1:15 pm Andreus Gustafson
1:30pm Pilgrim75 Swashbuckler, 1:42 pm Hellig Melson
1:54 pm Montian Gilruth, 2:06 pm LaidBack Celt
2:18 pm Newbawn Easterwood, 2:30pm Matt Perreault, 2:42pm Nick99 Razor, 2:54pm kellee blaylock, 3:06pm Tamra Sands, 3:18pm Anek Fchs, 3:30pm-Noma Falta, 3:42pm Franklee Anatra, 3:54pm Frogg and Jaycatt, 4:06pm Shannon Oherlihy, 4:18 Clairede Dirval
4:30pm jean munro, 4:42pm pondman haalan, 4:54pm skye galaxy, 5:06pm Norris Shepherd, 5:18pm Kim Seifert
5:30pm Raspbury Rearwin, 5:42pm Zerbie Magic, 5:54pm ******catch up break******6:06pm Wytchwhisper Sadofsky, 6:18pm Shantu Selene, 6:30pm Maximillion Kleene, 6:42pm Frets Nirvana, 6:54pm Ictus Belford, 7:06pm Lightning lowtide, 7:18pm Truly Lionheart, 7:30pm PM Bookmite, 7:42pm Phemie Alcott, 7:54 pm Harper Mesmer
8:06pm RB Hamelin, 8:18pm madmax, 8:30 pm Jackson oxenberger, 8:42 pm bruce scrabblebat, 9:06 dirtydee, Sweetwaterr, 9:18pm Rosedrop rust, 9:30pm Ronus Lefevre,
9:45 pm Paul Nowles, 10 pm Dexter Ihnen,
End : Audience Rumble with Moondoggirl Moomintoog
(bye bye miss american pie)
Gwampa

Hungry Art Gallery

Archibald Sideshow's Hungry Gallery held a grand opening 10-17-10 presenting artist Ariel Brearly, Daruma Boa, Sledge Roffo and Archibald himself. Archibald showed me around the gallery explaining that the top floor is filled with his works many of which he uses his own body against the picture to make works of art. The first one we discussed was called "Me White On Black and Red.".. fitting considering it was him. He said and one could see it was his face "pushed up against the canvas." He also showed me some works with his body on the canvas as well as a female body so that I could experience the different looks they provided. Of course I had to ask if that felt good and he replied, " No not so good cause I using acrylic and its plastic color with drying fast". He finally admitted he uses himself in the art a lot. One work he showed me he stated it was not even dry yet in first life.

After a little discussion Archibald, who lives in Sweden provided some personal information about himself. He paints and also writes poetry and prose. In his own words, " I roll out a mat on the kitchen floor, and pick up a box of paints from the closet. Then I crawl around the canvas on the floor with cool music in the background.
Later that night I take my canvasses to a park behind a garage and start to spraypaint them. Usually I call a friend and tell that I'm cold. Always cruelly cold to wait for it to dry.
I bought art on vintage, which I then painted over. I have a lot of vintage artwork style Hollywood Paris from -59, that sometimes get stuck on the canvasses.
I usually substitute my own model. I do not use a brush when I paint, I use pieces of wood, knives, my own body. Yes, I paint on my body and make prints.
Art is the imprint from society, from the inside from the outside, from me. My body is my brush. I do not know what I'm doing, that's why I'm doing it."

Whatever he is doing he is doing it right.

Some friends in attendance got a little goofy for a while changing their avatar shapes and dancing in the gallery amidst the art. Attendees included:
Mariella Tammas, Burk Bode, Maloe Vansant, Jocgart Larsen, Eves Rodenberger, Giaanmario Masala, Musique Gable, Music Hyun, Razi Semple, nessuno Myoo, Frislanda Ferraris, Kicca Igaly, Anri Liamano, and many others.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Escape%20Falls/202/164/22 or direct link here: ArchibaldHere.

archibald_sideshow@live.co.uk
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bjornmalm/

Vid of the goofy dancing by Flickr Friend Burk Bode: http://www.flickr.com/photos/40649214@N08/5123242993/

Explore It-Education in Second Life

My friend and Media Pro, Persia Bravin, handed me a invite box to rez yesterday. I didn't think much about it until I rezzed it open today to find a very cool interactive announcement for an event being held this Saturday, November 6th 11-3 SLT at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sbcc%20Explore%20It/114/46/22 . Immersive, interactive Education is coming to SL via a grant. The announcement was about the the Second Life official launch of the ‘EXPLORE IT!’ project funded by the California SB 70 Grant, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s initiative on improving and strengthening ‘Career Technical Education.’

Thanks to the grant now *"students in Santa Barbara, California, can discover career paths in the technical industries right here in Second Life. Funding from the ‘SB 70’ grant awarded to Santa Barbara City College and administered by the California Department of Education, has enabled the build of the brand new ‘Explore It!’ career academy located on its own sim in Second Life. This truly innovative project has been designed by an all star team and will be used by thousands of students from junior high, high schools and colleges to explore career routes in the technical fields of multimedia, culinary arts, the automotive industry, horticulture and hospitality. Creative scripting technology also means the ‘EXPLORE IT!’ village includes audio explaining each career, videos, interactive gadgets plus a website with helpful information about the many different routes offered in each main career."

The official launch day events schedule includes:
11am-12pm: BOSL DJ Allenclive Beaumont
12-1pm: Live Music from HatHead Rickenbacker
1pm-2pm-Live Music from Aubryn Melody
2pm-2pm: Live Music from Bones Writer

The invitation opened up to a chopping block table that talks and moves as you click along. You click the knife and it chops carrots, makes soup, and there is even a bunny, etc. I enjoyed the invite and am sure the opening event Saturday will be a blast. Explore it... Your Future That Is. The event is open to all so check it out here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sbcc%20Explore%20It/114/46/22


*"The creative team behind ‘Explore It!’
DB Bailey (David Denton) - Architecture/ Building
Keystone Bouchard (Jon Brouchard)- Building and model construction
Desdemona Enfield - Scripting
Douglas Story (Dennis Schaefer) - Writing, interactive gadget concepts, voice-over talent direction, photo compositing, and audio editing
Hilda Diavlo (Nina Jensen) – Website development
Zil Jewell (Liz Russotti) – Grant Director
LeaLea Llewellyn (Leana Bowman) Grant writer
Chrome Underwood- Cast avatar design
Persia Bravin-Press and Promotion

What is the SB 70 Grant?

California’s SB 70 Grant is the Governor’s Initiative on improving and
strengthening Career Technical Education (CTE). The ’Explore It!’ career academy was made possible through a grant application implemented, written by and awarded to Santa Barbara City College.

More Information on the SB 70 Grant can be found at:
www.cde.ca.gov/ci/ct/gi/sb7007summary.asp"

*Information quoted from Perisa's Flickr stream here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/persia_bravin/5143910126/

Halloween in Second Life

One more Halloween vid. Deja Vogue had a great Halloween party, so I took some snaps and a little vid and here it is.

Happy Halloween 2010

Well, Halloween came and went and I was not in the greatest of moods this year so didn't go all out RL or SL as I usually like to do, since Halloween is one of, if not the most favored holiday for me. I did get outside in the dark RL last night and I did play hard at numerous SL Halloween parties too. Then I came home RL/SL and made one final pic in the outfit I wore the most for Halloween this year in SL and I used a tiny bit of Photoshop, since I just now got that out and want to learn to use it a little. Here is my pic for Halloween this year. Now it's 53 days and counting until Christmas. (Thank goodness we have turkey day this month though too)




Drat, It's either small or cuts off some of the pic from the sizes offered copying off Flickr. I'll figure these things out some day and for now it's the tiny full pic.