Contact Sheet — iliveiSL, Anessa Stine, Hitomi Mokusei,

Welcome back to Contact Sheet. For this column, we have a fair mix of subjects; this time, we lead with an excellent landscape.

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I don’t rely on just Flickr and Snapzilla for photographs. Tag-surfing is a good way to come up with material for linking and cross-posting as well. I’ve been noticing articles from the blog iliveiSL in wordpress.com’s dashboard for some time here, and have had a mild interest as this avatar or group build a region. The terraforming work is finishing up in some of their areas, and their blog is advertising for realtors to work on commission.

They’re photographing the place, of course, and their shots show how good WindLight can be if your graphics card can handle the strain. I have just one example here, but give a look to the rest of their photostream to see more of it.

(Just to stay on the level, I’m not shilling for them; I simply like their photography. I haven’t even been to the region to look at it, since Hrosskell contents me completely.)

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Humor Department: I think Anessa Stine was feeling rather warm this day; but this is going to extremes to cool off….

And Hitomi Mokusei has quite a story behind how this plane got into her house. No, it has no relationship to The World According to Garp. (I offered to leave this out, but Hitomi wouldn’t (ahem) agree to a payment schedule [grin].)

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A newcomer to Contact Sheet: the blog SL Fashion Diva and contributor Rio Hamaski posted a lovely cocktail ensemble recently. The dress comes from Cachet; remaining details are in Rio’s article. I like most the skirt of this flirty dress, which reminds me of certain Eighties styles that for some reason many people decry today in RL; and the shrug about the model’s shoulders.

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Here’s a return engagement from Ryou Yiyuan, who I think has a preference for medieval and similar role-playing locations. This shot, of an expedition or raiding party, was taking somewhere called the Kingdom of Sand, and is just one of several she’s done here.

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Contact Sheet is an irregular column of selected photographs and portraits from Residents of Second Life. Images used in this article are used under permission of the owners via their participation in the Creative Commons license; otherwise, all rights are reserved. Click on the links as necessary to go to the required blog, Flickr or Snapzilla page. Please go to these artists’ pages in any case to leave comments, if you have an account on the appropriate service.

Suggestions are appreciated; please send descriptions and links to me by in-world IM, notecard, or E-mail to harper.ganesvoort@gmail.com.

Still Looking for Help for Sinnocent

Sinnocent Mirabeau, whose real life medical problems with her dog I wrote about last week, has told me that the surgery has been scheduled for this week. However, she’s still some $300 short for the veterinary costs. And we’re talking real New-nited States Dollars here, folks, not linden dollars. Sinnocent is still running her BOGO sale at Sinsation (I finally got the acronym right), and I urge you to take advantage of it. Allow me to demonstrate some of my favorite “wigs” here for your temptation! (These photos won’t be pretty; more quick and dirty, as I want to complete it and help her; but if it helps get her that last $300, it’ll be worth the artistic sacrifice [grin].)

As a sweetener to the pot, send me a picture of you in some of your new Sinsation hair in front of the poster at the Sinsation store, and I’ll send you my current package of prints from Harper’s Fine Art. That’s 21 framed pieces of art, at least a L$2,000 value — for free. Can’t beat that, folks; you’ll be doing well, you’ll be doing good, and so will Sinnocent and myself! Come on, and give the lady a hand!!

Red Dream from Alchemy

When Alchemy announced a 50-linden clearance sale about a week ago, I rushed over to check things out.  There was probably more I could have spent my cash on, but I picked out only four dresses, two pair of each.

This dress is called Dream in the Inventory, and it’s definitely a dream design.  I like the slingshot halter top especially — not surprising, I guess, considering a similar top is in the custom Droxine gown I commissioned a few months ago — and the skirt is reminiscent of Marilyn’s in The Seven Year Itch.  I’m not sure if it’ll still be there; I’ve been catching up on other things, including starting my art store.  But it may be worth a look!

A Shamelessly Commercial Notice

Announcing, with a tasteful fanfare of trumpets, the opening of:

my new store in OnRez.  My collection of quality RL works for your purchase (at prices below £250) is small at this time — only 11 items — but I find more work to frame and offer for sale almost every day.  I’m currently working on a collection of portraits and scenes by John Singer Sargent, and I already have several items related to the 1920s for your examination.  As the collection grows, I plan to offer fatpacks of multiple items at discount for mass purchase.  (If my own photography in SL improves, I may start offering my own work as well — and I could consider acting as agent for others, on a commission basis.)

Have bare walls?  Looking for gifts?  Come to Harper’s Fine Art and Photographs! I’ll be glad to work with you.  Commissions accepted, beginning at £350.  (No pornography, please).

New Linden Communications Manager Introduces Herself

Katt Linden has introduced herself to Residents at the Big Blog. Katt is the new Communications Manager for Linden Lab, and the comment section to her article is filling rapidly with “friendly greetings” (thank you, Torley!) and wishes for success, as well as hopes for improved communications between the Lab and its customers.

As I said in my own comment, I don’t envy Katt her new position at all. Reading many blogs and comments convinces me that Residents can be a cantankerous, demanding crew even at the best of times. And, any road, being the PR mouthpiece of any organization is a thankless task when the times go rough. But I hope that Katt will have success in her new position, as well as help mend the fences that have been rather strained over the many issues this past year has raised.

Trademarkgate — AT LAST!

(With thanks to Dusan Writer, who put me on to this while I was tag-surfing the WordPress.com blogs)

Rather late, but at last, Linden Lab has published an article (by LauraP Linden) on the Big Blog, addressing most of the questions SLoggers and others have raised about their now legendary (read: notorious) branding policy changes. Anyone who writes a SLog, or is thinking of creating one, make sure to read this!

The pity is that it took so great effort on the part of the SLogosphere, and the raising of much bad blood toward LL, to get clarification of matters that should have been addressed back in March, when the policy was first revised from the old liberal-use mode.  Linden Lab has had to endure in that time the castigation of a number of influential bloggers — I don’t necessarily rank myself in this category (grin) — the belief by large amounts of the remainder of the Residents that they were wasting time on stupidity when they should focus on Fixing the Grid, and a three-day protest action by said prominent bloggers to draw attention to the question.  Even now, some worry that this is no improvement (I see it as much clearer, myself), or that key questions still need addressing.  The published E-mail address for trademark and brand questions, tm-questions@lindenlab.com, is going to be very busy for some time to come.  I hope they give better answers individually than we were receiving at large and at first.

Ah, well; for my part, I think the main problem is solved.  After placing a finis opus on this article, I intend to enjoy a few well-earned fingers of Bushmills and water, and then collapse in preparation for cleaning my house in the bright of morning — and my store inventory in RL on Sunday night!

Call for Help for Sinnocent Mirabeau

Gentle readers, if you have some extra lindens in your pockets, I’ve heard of a fellow avatar in need.

Sinnocent Mirabeau, the owner of Sinsation Hair in Hairspray, sent out a notecard with good news and bad news. Since the note is public (she has a dispenser in her store), I reproduce it here to let her tell it in her own words:

Hi everyone.

It is with a heavy heart that I write this, but I figure my crisis and personal heartache can maybe have something good come out of it. Hopefully for myself and for all the people in SL who like my hair or skins and want to get 2 for the price of one.

Anyways, here’s the deal. I normally hold sales like this every few months just for kicks and as a fun way to get people even more hair than they’d normally be able to purchase on their own. However, this sale is of great importance to me for other reasons.

A week ago my 9 month old baby puppy, Eris, (even tho she’s not so little anymore) started to have a mass growing in her ear. I thought she had just gotten bitten by something outside and it would clear up in a few days. Well that didn’t happen. In fact, the mass got about 8x bigger. So I took her to the vet yesterday and got the worst possible news.

She didn’t get bitten; she has a tumor and a hematoma forming in her ear and she needs surgery to remove it. Otherwise it will just get bigger and bigger and will either.. rupture… get badly infected…. and most likely both will happen.. and the infection the doc said will eventually kill her.. sooner rather than later.

The even worse news is exactly how much it’s going to cost to save her… Which is $1447.00 US. I was in shock when given that figure because it is just not a price I can even close to afford. I’m getting married in RL in September to my sl hubby and I’ve had to put most of my money towards that for deposits and all the other wedding junk that I need.

The irony is that she was my engagement present, and now… my wedding is the thing that has taken up all my money and put me in this spot. Blah…

So at any rate I’ll get right to the point.. I have a very little window of time in order to raise the money to save her.. so I decided I would do a buy one get one free sale in order to try and help to get some of the money for her surgery.

Everything in my shop is eligible for the sale, nothing at all is excluded. The basic idea is whatever you buy.. you get something of equal or lesser value.. free.

So if you buy a skin you can get a skin free or a couple hairs, doesnt matter. Anything goes.

All you have to do is purchase what you want, then send me a notecard with what you purchased and which items you would like to receive free. I will send them on out to you after that.

I suspect anyone who likes outrageous hair knows of Sinsation. If you’ve seen some of my Flickr photos, you’ve seen me sporting Sinnocent’s work. It’s good, and I want to throw my support behind her. I’ve already done so materially; I purchased a fatpack for £5,000, and I’ve requested a £3,500 fatpack as my freebie. Drop yourself into Hairspray region, step over to the pink palace you’ll see when you materialize, and let’s help out a fellow traveler and good designer.

Raising the Red Flag

In my last article, I linked to Rheta Shawn’s ongoing article listing known participants in the bloggers’ protest strike to encourage Linden Lab to clarify its new trademark/brand policy.  The comments to her post show that the bloggers are approaching their concern with a sense of humor as well as seriousness — and not a little grasp of the classics, as well.  A painting by Delacroix, invocation of Victor Hugo and the musical Les Misérables that derives from Hugo’s masterpiece; it’s all there.

One writer, Laetizia Coronet of Virtual Village Voice, took it to the next level.  Revolutionaries have used the red flag as a symbol of revolt for years, and that includes, of course, revolutionaries of a more recent vintage.  In her comment, Laetizia did a bit of light filk — to the Internationale!  In the same vein, I responded that if we were going to be subjected to Marxian polemics next, I’d be putting in a phone call — to the ghost of J. Edgar Hoover.  (The modern FBI doesn’t worry too much about Commie plots….)

All that reminds me of my college days.  I have a Bachelor of Arts in humanities (hail the Seven Liberal Arts!), and was, of course, required to take several core classes.  In the one dealing with the 1800s, we were required to either write one major paper on a topic of our choice, or several smaller papers from a list of suggestions.  One classmate chose the mini-papers, and one of the suggestions was Karl Marx.  She purchased copies of Das Kapital and The Communist Manifesto, and was reading them at work during lunch time.  They were laying on her desk, out in plain view, as the boss walked by.  According to my classmate, he took one look and winced, and begged her (jokingly, I’m sure) to put those things away in a drawer!  I think he was afraid she was planning to set off the revolution there in his company….

“Allons, mes enfants!! Man the barricade!”

At this press time, 23 Second Life bloggers have gone on a three-day virtual strike in protest of Linden Lab’s introduction of their new Brand Center trademark rules.

As reported here and elsewhere, LL has changed their rules from an open, easy to read and understand set of guidelines that encouraged bloggers to write about the virtual world, to a set of rather opaque rules that have left many writers uncertain what the status of their blogs will be at the end of the 90-day grace period. Many writers are wondering if they must pepper their articles with ™, ® and © symbols every time they mention the words “Second Life” or “Linden Lab” in an article; others fear being forced to change domain names that contain “Second Life” or “sl.” There have been some legal concerns that, having been compelled to agree to revised Terms of Service that include the new branding rules, any failure to comply completely will result in a shutdown of an account.

Gwyneth Llewelyn, one of the best-known SL bloggers, has demanded a clarification of LL’s new policy beyond the second article posted in their Big Blog (the official SL blog), which is considered essentially a rehash of the actual Brand Center page without any true explanation of what the Lab’s intent toward bloggers is. At the end of her article, she stated that she would “go on strike” for three days if no full explanation was given by LL. Other bloggers have now chosen to join her in this. A list to date of participating blogs can be found at Rheta Shan’s blog, Rheta’s World, along with a nice touch of humor that raises the image of a Les Misérables-like stand on the virtual barricades, raising the red flag of revolution.  A protest stand in front of the Governor’s Mansion in Clementina is planned for Sunday, at good times for both European and American participants.  Interested participants should contact Gwyneth Llewelyn for more details.

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Linden Lab is still botching its public relations with a group that has done it more good for free than any amount of paid publicity could have done. The appointment of a new communications manager, Katt Linden, is a positive step for the future; but they should address the present as well, which includes this situation.  That they have not, in a form that is clear and satisfactory to the Residents concerned, does not augur well for their future communication ability.  While it is quite possible that Second Life could have grown in similar ways from paid advertising, nothing beats the advertising of satisfied customers — the legendary word of mouth.  Someone who likes what they see will try to get more people involved in it to share the fun; they will talk it up to friends and strangers alike.

Similarly, though, a dissatisfied customer can also express their dissatisfaction — and many studies have shown that the words of a dissatisfied customer affect more people in the long run.  Those studies were done years ago, in the days before public use of the Internet.  Imagine now how much reach this powerful communications tool can have.  The current customer base outside of the concerned bloggers are mostly unworried at this time; but potential future customers can run across all the negative press generated by the controversy, and be turned away by concerns over a potentially tyrannical situation.

In their second blog writeup, Catherine Linden also seems to believe that we don’t understand why trademarks are important to companies.  She fails to realize, apparently, that there are many professionals, corporate types, Highly Educated Persons, and just general smart people that understand quite well what value a trademark holds.  Few or none of us have any objection to LL’s protecting their rights — provided that they do not step on our rights in the process.  The newly restrictive attempt at trademark enforcement, coupled with a failure or disregard to explain things adequately to satisfy our concerns, makes LL look even worse in the eyes of an increasingly estranged customer base.

The ball is in Linden Lab’s court.  How will they respond now?

5,000 Hits!

A little while ago, this blog passed the 5,000 hit mark.  I am seriously amazed and delighted; I’ve written blogs before, but not nearly as popular as this one has been.  That’s 5,000 visits in just a little under five months of operation, which works out to a little under 34 visits a day.  I must be doing something right!  Or, more likely, the topicality of some of my posts, especially recently, have kept people coming in, and even returning.  (With wordpress.com, I must rely on their internal counters, and can’t see what my return-visit rate is.)  What I can see are the RSS statistics as well, on individual posts, which drives the readership even higher.  Some of these articles have been monsters, with lots of syndication reading.  Others, seemingly inconsequential ones, are at the top of my all-time list; “Meet Me at Frank’s Place,” just my second article, is the most read, with 202 primary hits at last count.

For those of you who are returning regularly, I thank you for your enjoyment and faithful visits.  I shall try to keep up the quality that’s had you coming back to check on my new material, and hopefully improve as well.  (Thus getting ever more readers, of course [grin].)

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On to other business….  If you notice a change in the look of Around the Grid, it’s because I’ve shifted themes, wanting a different look for a time. In part it’s a response to the ever-popular new Brand Center rules; since the Brand Center says the “first or most prominent reference to a Linden Lab brand name” should bear the “registered” symbol, a single appearance of that in my blog tagline should take care of the whole mess.

I’ve also wanted simply to try other templates available on wordpress.com.  Getting stuck in one look gets boring, after all!  Right now, this particular template is the best of the rest (the dark template I had originally was the best, period), and so I turned it on.  The down side to a “light” template is that my famous “signature” image washed completely out.  It was a GIF with a transparent background, which meant that a light template background would show through.  (Think alpha channel, all you dress designers.)  Since I chose a dark template originally, the lettering thus needed to be white or light to show up.  Guess what when I use a light template…?  So I redid the image in a solid color, one of my favorite jewel tones, and I’ve assigned it to a fair number of back posts already.  If I get ambitious, I’ll work through the entire 100+ articles.  The good thing about having to rework the image is that I got rid of a single pixel of solid color that was in the old image, and which was bugging me no end.  It didn’t show up against a dark background, but the light background of this template makes it stand out.  (Another inducement to reassign all the signatures….)