Ahkums Razor

SL5B Exhibitor!

2008-06-05T00:27:00.000-07:00

I applied to be an exhibitor at the SL Fifth Birthday celebration and today I received notice that I was accepted. I'm very excited about it. Here's part of the notice that came:

Congratulations! You have been approved to display your work at SL5B. Please keep the following rules and guidelines in mind.

Please keep your displays PG.

Obtaining land will be on a first come, first served basis. Do not take more land than you requested. Find a plot in the size you requested. (Each plot has a prim on it that has the size on it.) Put your own prim on the plot you want. One of us will come by after we verify that you have the right sized plot. NOTE: The art sims are pretty full. DO NOT TAKE EXCESS LAND!

Build your own gallery. Do NOT use megaprims.

Each 512 plot allows you an allottment of 100 prims. Therefore, if you have a 1024 plot, you get 200 prims, etc. Please don't exceed your allottment without permission.
512 = 100
1024 = 200
2048 = 400
4096 = 800

Display your art. Include a notecard and LM if you like. You may not sell your work here.

I visited within an hour of this going out and found that most of the plots in the sim were still available. I was able to pick a very good one close to a crossroads at the center of the festival grounds.

Space Art: "Destination"

2008-02-12T22:24:00.000-08:00

This is my latest painting. I made it this size and shape to fit a particular wall in my Cetus gallery. I finished it last Saturday, in time for two gallery openings (Cetus and Mountain View). I sold one at the Mountain View opening and received good feedback on it from everybody. Gentle and I had a long conversation about it. She's very insightful and I was fascinated by her observations.

Catching Up

2008-02-10T19:22:00.000-08:00

It's been far too long since I wrote an entry telling about my Second Life. I've been writing daily for Earn2Life so I haven't had as much time or energy to write blogs (or Vox or Associated Press or Suite 101 or Helium). My residence is now in Brooke's Wharf, in a small loft above one of my galleries. I rent the slip next to my building and have a nice sailboat that I use for leisure.

I have six galleries now. Cetus, Mountain View, Brooke's Wharf, Nokeys, Tournicoun and Nunnsutch. I will post a picture and some information about each one. That should be good for six posts. My art is selling slowly but lately has been picking up steam. I'm slowly getting my name out there in the community. More importantly, however, is that I continue to love painting in Photoshop. I now have a wonderful Wacom tablet that is pressure sensitive and makes all the tools really come alive.

I've met many great people... Ayam, Gentle, Xander, Tricia, AnnaLisa, Mia, Thomas, PJ, Mater, and many more. Perhaps I'll get a picture of them all with me for the blog. Yeah... that's it.

Sailing SL is awesome. The scripting is fabulous and makes the experience quite realistic. Wind speed, direction, angle of sail all come into account. It's a real joy.

Chino Ray's January 2008 Wicked Blog Contest

2008-01-17T21:00:00.000-08:00

Chino Ray, the proprietor of a very popular blog, "The Best Place to Earn Free Linden Dollars and Make Money in Second Life," continues the insanity month after month and January 2008 is no different. Chino helps many Second Life residents with his blog by showing them how to earn money and helps residents get a boost with his many cash giveaways.

There is the "Top Commentators" contest that weekly pays L$500 to the blog subscriber who posts the most comments. Chino seems to read them all and keeps the spam at bay. Weekly winners of this contest consistently provide good commentary that is useful for the entire community.

Other ways Chino has gifted his faithful readers is by giving away Lindens to a random email subscriber of his blog and giving other bonuses through the month.

The big contest each month is the Wicked Blog Contest. He offers readers a large sum to link to his contest from their blogs. In the past the prize has usually been L$5,000 but this month he's increased the ante to L$6,000 plus an additional L$2,000 bonus to the best blog entry.

So do yourself a favor. Become an active member of Chino's blog. He could be charging for the information he shares about making money in Second Life, but instead he regularly rewards his readers. Be sure to especially check out the January 2008 Wicked Blog Constest here:

http://www.chinoyray.com/january-2008-wicked-blog-contest/

Ahkums

To Be an Artist

2007-11-19T10:04:00.000-08:00

Wow, a frenzy of activity has been happening. So much so that I've failed to update my blog in awhile. I joined the Art and Artists Network on advise of a gallery owner I happened to meet. That's what started it all. I saw a group notice from Alucin regarding his gallery and how he was accepting artists. I paid him a visit and we discussed my work. He teleported to my shop in Nimbulus and looked at the paintings. Finally, I asked him what his honest opinion was. This was a big moment, as I had never outright asked anybody else in SL what they thought of my work. He said... "It's awesome!" I know have a place in his gallery.

The next day or so, I was contacted by somebody associated with the International Space Museum sim. She saw my work at the gallery and asked if I'd be interested in displaying some of it in their new Annex building. I checked out the sim and it's amazing. Pretty much a replica of Cape Canaveral. Scale size rockets, launch pads, the VAB, everything. Extremely cool. I gave her some sample work to review with the sim committee and am waiting to hear back from them.

A few days later I saw another group notice about a gallery open house. I figured I'd drop in to check it out and I met the curator, Mia. She was at the end of her show, so I invited her to see my work at the gallery and she agreed. I was a little surprised. She loves the work and offered one of her galleries for my work and her services as a promoter. I was very exicited and we worked out a business arrangement. I got two sales the next day, my first artwork (besides two mystic pyramids) that have sold in SL. The future looks bright.

Meanwhile, I opened two new store locations, one in Urban City and one in some artsy French sim called Tournacor or something like that. Now I'm focusing on marketing the locations and working with Mia.

It's been incredible and so very exciting and fun. The key to all of this was just getting out there in the art community, talking to people, getting plugged in and networking. Lots of luck too I'm sure.

Crazy Chino's At it Again

2007-11-10T16:35:00.000-08:00

Chino Yray is giving away another L$8,000 in the month of November. Be sure to check out the details of the contest here.

Tristan's Apartment

2007-11-08T17:01:00.000-08:00

Just hanging out in Tristan's place. This is shortly after she just set up her living room. My apartment is right above hers. I like the picture so this blog entry is just a vehicle for displaying it. :)

Kuroboro Works Robot Avatars

2007-11-04T15:35:00.000-08:00

I splurged for this wicked cool avatar, the KX-03 by Kuroboro Works. It's a small very cool looking robot. Kinda looks like a variation on Cybie the Robodog. His movements and animations are really sharp and it's fun to fly around as him. I took this pose in front of one of the autumn trees in Pandoria, the sim where my new apartment is.

Kuroboro Works is a shop in Kanda, a Japanese sim. There are quite a few nice shops there and I really like their taste in avatars. Take the time to visit.

I paid a visit to Kuroboro for these photo ops and I think I'll send one to the KX-series creator, Nobunaga Ogee just to tell him how much I like his work.

New Apartment!

2007-11-04T14:25:00.000-08:00

I found a great new apartment in Pardoria -- the Pardois Apartments. Pandoria is a very attractive sim, with walking path lined with colored plants and trees, lakes, and a swiss-style village for shopping. There is a social club where residents hang out and a game center for entertainment and socializing. Tristan and I both moved to this new place. I took one of the top floor apartments and Tristan has the one directly below me. If you look closely at the picture you'll see both of us on our balconies.

I haven't moved anything in yet, but I can't wait to get things set up. That's half the fun of owning a place to live. The other nice thing about it is a private place to tries outfits, build things and hang out with others. These spacious, two-floor apartments are a steal at L$125 per week and they feature controllable window blinds with three settings.

Earn Free Lindens, Make money in Second Life with Chino Yray

2007-10-31T15:42:00.000-07:00

Chino has a really great blog about how to many money in Second Life. He also gives away free Lindens to people who participate in his blog discussions. His main web site is Chino Yray dot com. He also has a great post called Earn Linden Dollars. Finally, he's been running a contest every month since August for free Lindens called Win 5000L$ linden dollars. If you're interested in making some easy Lindens (and who isn't?) check out Chino's blog. If you want to know more about this crazy guy, see his About Chino Yray page.

My First Store

2007-10-30T12:23:00.001-07:00

I rented a 512 in the Nimbulus Futuristic Cloud City Mall. L$100 per week, it's a great deal. I really like the location, the look of the area. I've met a couple of my shopkeeper neighbors and the landlord. Everyone is quite friendly.

I'm selling interactive sculptures and framed digital artwork. The sculptures are glass pyramids and on touch emit a relaxing particle flow. The artwork consists of several paintings I did in Gimp earlier this year. All with a space theme. I did the frames in Photoshop by looking up some framing techniques on web pages.

It was very rewarding creating my shop. It took a couple of days to set everything up the way I wanted it but I'm happy with the result. I turned off physical because I had trouble placing the items where I wanted with gravity on. I locked the items so that they couldn't be moved after they were set. (I may need to adjust this. After Tristain bought a sculpture, it was still locked and she had to unlock it before she could place it in her apartment). I also became very familiar with the camera controls while setting up shop, as I used them heavily. I created a tiny rod and hid it behind my store sign. It emits a nice sparkle, not overdone but very attractive.

The second day my shop was open somebody spent L$300 on two sculptures. I was so excited! No other sales since, but there will be, I just have to be patient.

I want to open another store and try my hand at some men's clothing. There isn't alot out there that isn't for young punks and model wannabes. I also have had trouble finding decent men's hair. I'll have to look into how to make it, there's an open market out there for it.

Born Oct. 15, 2007

2007-10-19T14:20:00.000-07:00

I'm four days old today. When I was born and appeared on Orientation Island I found myself standing within a group of hesitant newbies and I fit right in. But it wasn't long before I completed the four-step orientation and received my key to the new world.

Armed with rudimentary knowledge of how to navigate, use the map and the search tool and interact with my environment, I set off discover myself. My first stop was a couple of "Freebie" sims where there are free clothes and items for newbies, as well as claims of free Lindens, the local currency. I changed my clothing and appearance a bit so I no longer looked like a newborn. Now I just looked like a newbie with cheap threads.

When I discovered that the free money involved filling out "surveys" on web sites, which more resemble consumer traps and spam, I was considerably disappointed. I then discovered "camping" which is parking myself somewhere in a sim, hanging out or dancing. In this way I can earn a modest sum, around $1L every 5 minutes or so. I was hoping for better options, like finding a job or something, but until I do, I will be doing my share of camping when human is busy in RL.

I lean heavily on the search tool to find interesting places to explore. In the last few days I've danced at a jazz club, attended a live music event, done some browsing in a mall and an art gallery and discovered "sandboxes."

Sandboxes are sims that allow the public to build objects. The objects are typically cleared from the sim regularly to keep it tidy. I delved into building and by using the in-world building tools, I created a few simple geometric shapes. Getting started building is easy, but I can see that building anything worth wearing, living in or otherwise displaying is an artform that will take lots of patience and practice.

While I'm sure I will dabble in the arts, I am much more wired for scripting. A script is code that can be attached to objects that make them do things. Animation, interaction, propulsion, just about anything I can imagine and create in code. I believe that my place here will in some way revolve around the creation and sharing of useful scripts.

Overall, I'm completely facinated and enthralled by this world and it far exceeds my expectations. I can't wait to continue exploring, earn some money, find my niche and eventually get a place of my own.