oops, i didn’t mean to stay away so long i promise! i’ve been having some off sl time lately to try and clear my head and figure out some real life things, so i haven’t had much to blog about lately. however, recently i amazed myself and built a small installation at Brooklyn Is Watching (see the BIW blog post about it here). it is hard for me to really put my thoughts and feelings into words but images and music i can express things much easier, so i left that at brooklyn is watching and it seems to have gotten a good response.

recently arahan left the flickr community and really i cannot blame him because every day it just seems more and more like a big stupid popularity contest. really if i had the space online somewhere to upload all of my sl photos i would most likely become rather scarce on there myself. kham made a good point though in saying that without flickr alot of us would never have met eachother, however sadly, there’s alot of people that i would never like to meet lol.

the whole flickr deal really raises the question of what you concider art. personally, art to me is something that bares the soul, touches a part of us, makes us think, or expresses something which words alone cannot. mindlessly photoshopped images of avatars in modeling poses are not art.

so what else has been going on? well i turned 2 on the 11th of this month! so i’ve been in second life for a full 2 years now :D! it’s definitely been an interesting 2 years. i spent the earlier part of my rezday visiting old places that i used to go to when i was a noob but most of them were gone which kinda sucked… and then i spent some time with friends and lucas, and it was a nice night.

some of you may have noticed that i am not the same looking avatar that i have been for 2 years, i’ve given myself a new shape which i feel is more “me” like… not really real life me, but i think it does me justice more than my previous one.

i don’t think i have anything else to talk about so i’ll end this here.

as some know my friends Arahan Claveau and Nebulosus Severine are both working on art exibits inside second life™ both in Amsterdam and the Virtual Holland sims for a week. a couple of nights ago we were chatting with neb about her massive lightspeed tunnel which in my opinion is an amazing work of prims and textures. during this chat she mentioned that the “co owner” of the neighboring sim, which bares the name “FedEx®”, came by and demanded she remove her art! he stated that there was too much glow and that things were too shiny and if she did not comply and remove the art he would speak to a linden and have her banned! take into concideration that this artwork is on the virtual holland sim, and NOT his sim, which in it’s own self makes his demands worthless.

we started looking into the situation when he flew over and rudely commented “i hope this is gone in a week.” yes we were a little childish, neb rezzed a picture of her bending over in a mooning pose but she was clothed in the photo and again, this is NOT ON HIS LAND!

lets take a look at Kalvin Jefferson, this so called “co-ceo” of FedEx®, as his group title states. his credentials on the main profile, sure they look sharp… but do real marketing professionals, working for a major company, purchase second hand sims and NOT move them to their own grid location not connected to any other sim? the FedEx® sim is located bordering the virtual holland sim as well as a couple of other sims owned by the same group. that’s only the tip of the iceberg. when contacting nebulosus about her art he called her “darling”. i’m sorry that’s not professional at ALL. he then banned anyone who tried to speak with him rationally about the situation except for the owner of virtual holland. they began to construct a rather crude prim wall in the one area where her tunnel was located.

let us also take a moment to dig further and check out the “owner” of this FedEx® sim, xbrian Sands

xbrian’s profile made the inner grammar-nazi in me want to destroy small planets…

What can FedEx offer u in SL? FedEx will make it so u can ship your packages Right here in SL,Thats right no more Logging out to run to the post office.U will be able to ship any package from right here in SL.Plus We will offer shipping right here in SL. at a small fee.Thats right suprise your lady and have us take her Roses with a note card from or send gifts.Let us handle your Delivery.

what professional in their right mind types like that?!?! “u” is NOT an acceptable replacement for “you”!!! especially when you are supposed to be a professional in marketing. as well they did not use the ® symbol when writing out FedEx which most major corporate sims that i have seen always make sure to use the correct branding marks when writing out the names of companies.

UPDATE! xbrian Sands no longer has anything related to FedEx® in his profile… hrm.. curious isn’t it?

their group for the sim also includes the same horribly miswritten text along with the official FedEx® logo for their group image.

none of the group members look like they are really part of any real world corporation. their profiles look like normal second life™ people.

i am all but convinced that this is a sham. if i am wrong then my appologies go to FedEx® because you are working with a very immature team.

still waiting on word on if this is actually a fake company or if this is a real company, but it just looks a bit questionable in my opinion.

i wanted to write a quick blog about this because its been happening to me alot recently and it’s driving me up the wall.

lately almost every day around the same time, i am getting spammed by bots sending links promising “free lindens”. these links are disguised with a “notlong.com” address.. which is kinda like tiny url but makes it look like the address is a subdomain of notlong.com. when you click on it, and yes i clicked on it which is probably not advisable but i wanted to see what it was… it will take you to h**p://cutiebutt.com/rot (broke the link so it doesn’t send any traffic from my site) first off, this site has stolen LL’s header image and photoshopped FREE $L! on it. there’s also some photos of second life people flying and those are probably stolen from someone i’m sure…

click for the fullsized image

now, to some people just starting out on sl, who don’t know much about scam sites or phishing… they would probably put their name in that box and i have a good feeling that when you do that, it takes your uuid, which means it can do any number of crappy things to you, including more spam!

the avatars that are spamming me seem like bots, i always check their profiles and they always come out empty. which of course is the tell tale sign of a bot.

[2:14] Mersand Kostenbaum: ATTENTION GRID CITIZEN: I am the banker. I am the wealthiest
citizen in Second Life and I am giving away millions of dollars in Lindens. Goto
*******.com to claim up to L$25,000. That is all.

[11:04] Waite Goldlust: heya, would you like some free lindens? we can give you some
just check out ******.com you can earn up to $l5000 right now

those are the two that i got. the first one i was in world when it spammed me so that one is in my chatlogs somewhere. the second and third were sent while i was offline.

it reminds me alot of gaiaonline where people send you to scam sites claiming that they can get you tons of gold but you just have to give them your name and password. which of course would result in the takeover of your account.

aparently this is a widespread epidemic. massively.com wrote about it recently as well.

so if you are getting spammed by these people. first of all make sure NOT to do anything on the site. do not put your name in that box. secondly, make sure to report the spammers the moment they contact you. fill out an AR and a support ticket if you can.

as with any game, you must always remember, no one is every going to send you money for free (at least large sums anyway). there is always a catch.

this has actually been around for a while now but i forgot to plug it! so if you have any LuNi Designs products and you’ve taken photos of them, we’d love to add them to the group! there’s no limits to how many photos you can post so feel free to join and flood just as long as the photos contain at least one LuNi Designs item somewhere in it, it’s eligible to be added!

not much else to say, just wanted to let people know that existed.

oh yes.. one other thing i forgot about. i’m making video demos for our animated objects (love kills, suicide talker, stop talking, etc) so people can see what the products do before they buy them.. because i am a nerd with fraps.. and i can lol

saturday i was pleased to be witness to the opening of the new arthole gallery by arahan claveau and nebulosus severine. these two are good friends of mine and impressive artists both inside and outside of second life™.

arthole was comprised of 3 levels the first and second of which were shared by arahan and nebulosus while the third level was given over to the crazy mind of ichibot nishi who’s installation was MINDBLOWING.

one of the highlights of any installation by these three is the creativity they show in making non-static art pieces. from the spinning pages of arahan’s journals, to nebulosus’ giant television, and ichi’s case… floating breast spheres. these folks bring 3d to their artwork in a way that is both appealing and in no way boring. some of the pieces were even interactive! (try colliding with arahan’s “shoot me” piece head on and watch the colours change)

after checking out the art we were treated to a great (and unplanned) party dj’ed by arahan and nebulosus, which ended up with some of us dancing in our undies hehe.

if you are part of the arthole group, don’t miss the chance to check out this awesome gallery! not a member of the arthole group? well you’ll have to take that up with them.

i took alot of photos so i’m just going to link to to my flickr account. they are all there

LuNi Designs LuNi Doll : Lacey

A little dead doll skin for you to call your own. Patched up and a little worn, Lacey is sugar and spice and everything not so quite right. Collect her and bring new life into this dolly.

Demo

Purchase Skin

LuNi Designs LuNi Doll : Ginny

A little dead doll skin for you to call your own. Worn and handed down, Ginny would scream “everything old is new again” - if she could. Collect her, and make your own scary memories.

Demo

Purchase Skin

LuNi Designs LuNi Doll : Rosey

A little dead doll skin for you to call your own. Cute, cheeky, and just a bit creepy, Rosey is ready for you to take her home.

Demo

Purchase Skin

here are some recent photos i did of lucas which i am rather proud of

he’s looking very rawr…

last night my dear friend codebastard redgrave had a really awesome opening party for her gallery boudoir rouge. there was undies and pole dancing and gorgeous photos of some of second life(tm)’s best known ladies. you can see the exibit at the code red lounge, or in her flickr account.

thank you for having me

new releases from LuNi Designs!

LuNi Designs : Dead Girl Skin
======================

Been chased around, beat up, and left with that “dead” feeling?  Put a little horror into your metaverse.
Based on cinematic dead girls of past and present.

Skin includes dead girl eyes, for that extra touch of creepy.

Demo (demo does not contain eyes)

Purchase Skin

—————————————

LuNi Designs : Bandages
==================

Fun, bloody, and bloody fun… these arm bandages are the perfect accessory to any wardrobe in need of some damage control.

Bandages are full mod and copy, for easy resize.

Full Set

Arms Only

Legs Only

yes more, because i forgot to blog when we added “love kills” to the store.

love kills is an attachment with ao. simple wear both pieces and viola! this idea came from when i was watching a girl at work tie her valentines day balloon around her neck. wish i’d thought of it BEFORE valentines day, but this works for all occasions.

in other news, Linden Labs dropped the bomb on residents that we can no longer use it’s brand name without proper symbols or what ever, i dunno i wasn’t paying attention. i’m pretty sure it only pertains to things which gain a profit, which of course this blog does not.

hmmm arahan just sent me an invite to an art hole group. this should prove fun. more on that as it happens.

yes i forgot to write for several months again :s but i was fired from my rl job a couple of days ago so i guess i’ll start posting more.

lately i’ve taken up making skins. with lucas’ help i’ve designed some rather monsterous additions to the skin world, using the another skin full perm psds.

holy crap that’s alot of work! and all of these just came out this month!

we’re really stepping up production and hopefully soon we’ll have an actual inworld store to show off our new creations!. as always you can find everything by LuNi Designs at our slx page

in non product whoring news lucas and i celebrated a year of marriage last week and we’re well over a year together as well

back to creating!