Catching Up

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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.