Dawn of the Tals

I'm a bit tired of anyone who says anything positive about SL changes being called names - particularly the terms "fanbois", "elites", "chosen few" "linden buddies" etc etc.

I've never been a fan of name calling - but a recent blog post inspired me and so....

I have a new name for the people who refuse to accept that SL must keep changing... the "Tals"
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Tal (-tôl, -täl)

Derivation: from the name Neanderthal, or Neandertal

n.
1.Slang A sub-species of the Second Life participants (residents) who are defined by their repeated patterns of behaviour including;

• Stick and stone throwing
• Grunted insults at other residents including the terms "fanbois", "elites", "chosen few" "linden buddies" as a way to quash any viewpoint disagreeing with their own
• Baseless accusations, usually accompanied by an insult
• Predilection for making assumptions without knowing the facts, and inability to research the facts
• Deliberate spreading of misinformation
• Inability to admit they are wrong in the face of factual evidence
• Inability and unwillingness to adapt to change
• Constant crys of "SL is dying" and it's related statement "this will destroy Second Life" (referring to a new change)
• Repeated postings in forums and blogs of their viewpoints when one posting is more than adequate
• Attempts to dominate a blog or forum post by repeated comments

 adj.
1. Of, having to do with, or resembling Tals.
2. Slang Crude, boorish, resistant to change
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Please Note: I too have been guilty of some of the above, and i resolve to call myself this name when i catch myself doing any of the above in future ie; "Jub you're being a Tal"

New Products from GARDEN WORLD

Added some new products this week at GARDEN WORLD and Xstreet :

GW Ocean & Shore Waves

4 piece set of ocean waves suitable for all ocean scenes AND an ambient surf soundball - all copy and mod. These beach waves have textures and sculpties all made inhouse - very high quality.
Includes:

• 3 types of sculpted waves and specially crafted textures to suit
• 1 x lapping wave
• 1 x crashing wave
• 2 x swirling waves @ 10 meters and 20 meters (megaprim)
• Ambient surf Soundball with random sounds
• All one prim sculpties (except the soundball) and all copy and modify

See them inworld at GARDEN WORLD or Xstreet Listing here

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GW Casual Cushions w Poses

Beautiful asian themed throw cushion seats. Two piles of cushions with 6 unique poses built in each, complimented with custom colorful designs
Highlights:

• 2 x comfy Cushion Seats (sculpties)
• 6 unique poses in each
• 5 prims and 4 prims per
• Pose positions adjustable (remembers last 100 AVs)
• Easy-to-use menu system for choosing poses

See and try them inworld at GARDEN WORLD and they're available for sale there too.

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GW Stone Garden Lanterns (Pair)

A pair of beautiful asian style Stone Garden Lanterns. Baked textures really bring these Lanterns to life. Place them in your garden and click them to see the hot coals casting a gentle amber light over your surroundings.
Highlights:

• 1 pair of matched Lanterns
• Baked stone textures for Day & Night modes
• Click for On/Off

See them inworld at GARDEN WORLD and is available for sale there too.

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GW Easter Island Heads

2 awesome Easter Island Heads with specially crafted stone and moss textures. These ancient looking Moai will look great on your beach or tropical theme area.
Highlights:

• One prim each (sculpties)
• 2 x Heads with different stone and moss textures
• copy and modify - decorate whole sims and stretch them up to 10 meters tall

A previous version of these statues with another texture is  available here and has been rated 4.5 stars for their quality

See these versions inworld at  GARDEN WORLD and they're available for sale there too.

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More new items coming very soon :)

Extra Alice in WonderSLand shows announced

Due to overwhelming demand - we've added another 2 Alice In WonderSLand shows. Get your tickets at Xstreet http://tinyurl.com/3agys2c
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The first reviews are in - it seems we have a hit!

I did a bit of googling to find Alice in WonderSLand reviews...seems our wee show is going down well

"The Most Enjoyable 90 Mins or so that I’ve ever Spent in SecondLife"

Bravo! Alice in WonderSLand is a HIT!

Is Alice in WonderSLand "Part of the Future of Live Entertainment"?

Alice In WonderSLand Performed Live In SL

2 Prim Tree Pack & Floating Islands

Added a couple more packs to the Sculpts Only Mall the other day... the 2 prim Trees BUILDERS PACK .
2 prim trees with textures for them, full perm  sculpt maps and copy/mod examples (for sizing).

And due to many requests... a Floating Island BUILDERS PACK. 1 prim each and 3 different shapes - they need to be set to phantom and have a walkable surface prim. I have included some copy/mod examples and a full perm script to make a linked sculptie phantom - useful for when you wish to link your build for sale.

Catch them and more at Xstreet or at the Sculpts Only Mall 

Snapshots of the renovations @ GARDEN WORLD

A few snapshots from the build in progress @GARDEN WORLD. Including shots from Sub Terrain a giant cave below GARDEN WORLD, and snaps from the Asian Garden.

Chilling at the Asian Garden

Buddha by the Zen garden

Stone Lantern and couples seat

Circle of power @ Sub Terrain

Mysterious temple @ Sub Terrain

Graveyard  @ Sub Terrain

Entrance to PrimEvil @ Sub Terrain

Hells Forge Smithy  @ Sub Terrain

The Hunter tricycle @ Metal Gear @ Sub Terrain

Our residents Dragon's lair. An educated dragon it seems :)

Come have a look, although please understand it's a bit of a mess atm. To make up for the inconvenience - we have a nice wee sale going on... all old style One Prim Plants (trees, flowers, bushes, tropicals) on special for $10 each copy and mod. They will make way for the brand new one prim plants shapes i have developed - coming soon ;)

Click for SLurl to GARDEN WORLD

Avatars United

The Lindens in their infinite wisdom have decided to purchase another web property... AvatarsUnited.com
Its basically a Facebook clone for avatars from all sorts of online games.
At first i was a little negative on it...after testing some of the functions i found some major errors happening (unable to edit a blog post for instance!), but a couple hrs exploration later it had revealed some hidden functionality that could make the site useful - at least as a marketing tool.
So after creating a Group, a Forum, adding photos to new albums, adding blurbs, and managing to basically theme some pages...my side seems at least ready to go.
I am amazed how many friends invites i am getting... i figure there's approx 225 SecondLife Avatars registered so far (try a search for no name to see stats) and i have 23 on my friends list already. Seems everyones linking their networks fast. Either that or i have a friendly harmless name that people click when they see it :P
My profile is at http://www.avatarsunited.com/avatars/jubjub-forder
My first Group for updates on w hats happening at GARDEN WORLD is at http://www.avatarsunited.com/groups/gardernerific

ART Christmas Shows

Had our second to last rehearsal today of the ART Christmas shows... things seem to be running smoothly so here a bit of publicity about it for those interested. :)

The REAL Christmas Story

3 original Christmas Plays by Avatar Repertory Theatre

Does your Christmas look less like Norman Rockwell and more like Norman Bates? Does your family put the "Diss" in "Dysfunctional"? Does your Uncle Fred use the Andy Williams' Christmas Albums for target practice? Well, welcome home Buckaroo! The actors of the Avatar Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) invite you to "The Real Christmas Story", starring Y.A.D.F. (your average dysfunctional family). These original Christmas stories will premiere on Friday, December 11, at 5 pm pst at the Dove Theater at Rockcliffe.

Two other performances will be presented on Saturday, December 12 at 3 pm pst, and Sunday, December 13 at 2 pm pst.

Written by three members of the A.R.T., "The Real Christmas Story" presents three views of the pain and pleasure of the holiday season. Sodovan Torok, Kayden Oconnell and Rowan Shamroy have googled their internal computers and found stories that embrace the past, endure the present and anticipate the future. Scrooge may have survived the spirits, but Tiny Tim might need counseling after spending time with these ghosts.

In his "The Xmas I Met Santa", Sodovan Torok brings us a sweeter tale of how Santa made an unexpected entrance and a somewhat painful exit. Rowan Shamroy shows us how old family dynamics are magnified and amplified during the requisite holiday gathering. And Kayden Oconnell shatters some Christmas myths when a hotshot reporter visits a young old man who knew Santa before Santa was cool.

Directed by Em Jannings and produced by AvaJean Westland, the Christmas shows include A.R.T. actors Prospero Frobozz, Thundergas Menges, Mickie Nikolaidis, Kayden Oconnell, Persephone Phoenix, Ada Radius, Rowan Shamroy, MadameThespian Underhill and Dolgoruky Umarov. The sets have been built by JubJub Forder, with costumes and animations assembled by Ada Radius, Joff Fassnacht and Rowan Shamroy. We are also introducing the new A.R.T. English Sub-titler for the hearing impaired designed by Prospero Frobozz and managed by JudyArx Scribe.

Admission to the event is free - click here for SLurl

Sculpties and LOD

So many people have asked me about sculptie tricks i have decided to start revealing some...first up Sculpties and LOD!

LOD = Level Of Detail
The Lindens in their infinite wisdom decided to treat sculpties with the same ideals as they do textures... that is to reduce the level of detail on a sculptie with distance. The further you are from a sculptie - the less detail it will have. They do this by reducing the detail in the sculpties mesh. It is calculated by how much area the sculptie takes up on your screen. So a big sculptie will still look ok from a long distance, a small sculptie may look bad from a close distance.
There are two basic ways to counter this issue - people generally call the problem fixes Sculptie LOD or Nano Sculpties. And another that is a fix for your personal viewer but doesn't help others when viewing the same sculpties.

Personal fix: Find the advanced menu in your SL viewer - if it doesn't show at the top of your screen beside the Help menu...press Ctrl + Alt + D simultaneously on your keyboard to activate it. Scroll down the Advanced menu to "Debug settings", enter "renderVolumeLODFactor" and change the value to "4" then close that popup. It may reset each time you relog :/

Sculptie Fix No 1 (for builders): Tricky to do depending on the sculptie shape... but is basically doubling the mesh points at the important places. Move your mesh points/vertices or segment lines so they almost overlap. This can counter the removal of detail by the SL viewer software by leaving mesh points in place when a line of them is removed. Has a bad side effect tho'... texture mapping is very hard. This is not my favourite method but can be useful in some cases.

Sculptie Fix No 2 (RECOMMENDED for builders): This is by far the simplest method - it works by fooling the SL software into thinking the sculptie is larger on screen than it appears visually. Has the side effect of producing a larger invisible bounding/collision box - so it's best to set such sculpties to phantom. Take your sculptie map/texture into Photoshop ... go to Image menu/Adjustments/Levels and adjust its Levels as per pic below ( is almost the same dialog in GIMP)

Play around with the slider settings to achieve a result that best suits you - the settings above are my favourite. Hit OK to close the dialog..and your sculptie rainbow will appear to dim a little. Import into Second Life to see the results. It will help the sculptie keep its detail at a longer distance - but please bear in mind it is not a perfect fix.

Not a morning person

Most days i get up, spring from my bed, and welcome the world with a grrrr. I have always somewhat envied those who spring from their bed and can smile and welcome the fresh day. Even though i live in paradise and have the best job i can imagine - it seems i am just not a morning person.
To make up for it... i work til very late at night... well actually early morning - 3-4am is the norm, and try to skip much of the morning (i never do succeed - arising usually 5 hrs later).

Some days something will happen to change my mood... yesterday my first IM of the day was a person accusing me of being a texture thief :(
 I do not know why i bothered to waste my time attempting to prove i wasn't. It was obvious the person did not know, had not done their homework, and was full of less than complimentary accusations and lies. Even trying to get him/her to tell me the name of the tree they were looking at (accusing me of stealing) was 20 lines of back n forth..and of course they were hiding behind an alt. 30 mins later i had asked the person to do the right thing and report their suspicions to the people who they claimed owned the texture (they were completely wrong) and then muted so he/she could not ruin my day completely

Then there is this morning... My first emails of the day inform me someone has posted a review of my buddha statue... so being a dutiful creator, i venture onto the wild world wide web to check it out and read this...

"I love this sculpture! It was in Nemmers whenI moved there and was the reason I bought my lot there. When the owner of the statue left, I bought one myself and made a park for it. Many visitors come and is is a major attraction at Nemmers .. I really believe it inspired other residents of the neighborhood to make their places beautiful too. You can rez this very large if you like, and very easy on the prim count!"

and a 5 star rating too!

So now i am sitting in their very pretty and relaxing park at Nemmers, admiring Butterpaw's beautiful  handiwork and drinking my first coffee of the day (a necessity to ease my mornings).

In moments like this I know with certainty i have the best job in the world :)

To go see Butterpaw's Garden click here