Veyron@cannery party, originally uploaded by Loki Popinjay.

Loki Popinjay took this great picture of me dancing at the Cannery party on Wednesday. Lots of lag there so, it must have been quite a challenge, and I didn’t even pose for it. Click on the link for a larger version of the picture.

-Veyron

Veryon Supercharge – Hell is here…now., originally uploaded by Code Bastard Redgrave.

I’ve been playing around at City of Lost Angels lately. So, I have been dressing up a bit more demonic lately. Since I’m pretty red as a demon, CodeBastard’s love of red came to mind Monday afternoon, so I sent her an IM asking her if she wanted to see just how red I could be….

Apparently, she liked it. This is me decked out with my Uzi’s and claws extended. The outfit (well, what little there is of it) is from The Devil Made Me Do It (how apropo).

Stop by the demon hang-out in the City sometime when I’m around. Just look for the intersection with the open manhole cover and the demons loitering around it. I’ll give you a private tour of the sewers….

-Veyron

Party on tomorrow, September 26th from 1300 to 1900 SL Time in the Cannery Sim.  Stella Errans will be spinning tracks live from Paris.

We’re showing appreciation to Vint and SHo for the help with the Cannery show.

-Veyron

Here’s the blogger party at Topgol going on. Gangster theme…. Just had a shootout – rather amusing…. Tried out the Uzi’s I have in damaged enabled land, but to apparently no effect. And I didn’t even get killed without my shield on. -Veyron
posted by Veyron Supercharge on Topgol using a blogHUD : [blogHUD permalink]

Okay, I was a bit torn about posting a link to what is obviously either a scam for Second Life vendors or more likely a rip off to anyone dumb enough to buy it.  Does anyone know more about the site SecondLifeCheaters.com?  I found the link on a bloggers Google Adwords.  Obviously not endorsed by the blogger I found the ad on.  Am I behind the curve on this site?

-Veyron

Keeping up with Amanda….

Kinda Dorky Nerd Queen… hmmm. I wonder what Vint and Tiessa score.

-Veyron

Well, there’s been a lot of smoke on the latest greatest plans by Linden Labs’ plans to identify who is who in Second Life.  If this is a good idea or not I’m not going to get into.  An analysis by Gwyneth Llewelyn appears to make some degree of sense above all of the noise.  The thought that Gwyneth has here is that Linden Labs is trying to find a safe harbor from the US legal system’s propensity to sue anyone who has deep pockets for just about any reason (which I haven’t really seen with Linden Labs yet).

The idea in a nut shell is that Integrity will assume the liability of verifying the identity of the customer (avatar).  This means that Integrity is on the hook for making a mistake.  Now, there are of course a lot of negative arguments against this whole idea, mostly down the Utopian concepts of free sex, money, land, ponies, and whatever else we have all come to know and love in Second Life.  Let’s assume that the method of keeping this information separated from Integrity and Linden Labs is kosher and we are for the sake of argument’s here going to pass over that.

(Disclaimer, I’m not a lawyer….)

First example, an escort performs some services for a customer.  This customer turns out to be Jimmy, a 14 year-old on the adult grid (shock and horrors).  He cheated the Integrity system somehow and the escort verified he was of “legal” age (whatever that means) before delivering services.  Mom and Dad find out and are infuriated.  They sue Linden Labs.  Their lawyer files discovery motions in every direction to find out who is who, like who was the escort avatar, so they may conduct discovery.  Without the verifications by Integrity, Linden Labs, and probably the escort avatar are now under a court’s microscope (like it or not).  But with Integrity on the hook, Linden Labs can probably shield the escort and themselves and fire the entire episode off at Integrity – who they are paying to absorb the hit.

Second example, a vendor sells a sex dildo strap-on to 16 year old Tommy (he has some interesting kinks – that’s for sure) and Mom finds out.  Same thing as above.  The vendor should also be protected, and more important, the vendor’s business should be protected.

In the real world, anyone who runs a business they live on wants to take prudent measures to protect their source of income.  That’s why the soft porn magazines have a black plastic condom cover over them on the magazine rack and the hard core porn magazines are in another room.  It’s prudent.

Call me a prude (which I hardly think is the case), but I have limits myself.  Like children avatars inside of Second Life.  While playing around as a child in some sims might be okay, almost all of the places I go to it would not be okay.  Let’s use the example of Paradise Lost club.  Clearly, this is not a place for children.  It’s an adult playground, clear and simple.  It’s also an attempt at a business.  It makes sense to try to keep people who should not be there out.  Second Life is far closer to Las Vegas than Disneyland.

There is the purely moral point of unverified underage activity.  Most of us ignore the payment information on file or not on an avatar’s profile.  So, we do not really have that to go by for age verification anyway.  I would find it hard to believe that almost anyone who reads this blog would not be rather upset if they found out they were unintentionally involved in adult activities with an avatar that turned out to be a minor.  Right now, we escape that moral failing through ignorance, which is really not right.

A civil society makes compromises all the time for the better good.  Society does not believe that children are not capable of making adult decisions (which biologically they are not), and thus need to be protected from adults.  Adults have to give up a few rights to make sure that children, who are the most vulnerable members of society, are given some protections.  Rather than sounding like I propose the Disneyfication of Second Life, let’s attempt to keep it safe for non-adults, and keep it like the fun adult Las Vegas we all know and love (and figure out how to get gambling back too).

I’m pretty confident that everyone I know to more than a passing acquaintance in Second Life is an adult (at least legally speaking…    but perhaps this verification system is a better way of being sure about it.

Lastly, rather than sounding like a hypocrite or zealot, I am very protective of my own Second Life identity.  It’s my means of increasing my enjoyment of the environment.   I play in Second Life for my entertainment, and I want to enjoy it to its fullest.  I too am concerned about how this verification will be implemented, I want to see this done right and hopefully it will be.  But I do see it’s value and why it is being done.

This is all going to be a difficult and painful process, but it is an unavoidable process of evolution for Second Life.  Hopefully things will turn out for the better in the end.

-Veyron

Wrath is being characteristcally stubborn.  I pick out this great outfit, which I even have used, and he won’t even try it on.  In fact, he insists he is a fashion god and does not need any help in that department.  So if you think Wrath needs a little fashion tune up, let him know what you think….

-Veyron

Fall back to the 19th Century means of long distance communications, semaphores…..

Thanks to Ordinal  Malaprop.  :)

-Veyron

veyron03, originally uploaded by RightAsRain.

I had some fun doing some modeling for the Cannery show Vint had been working on. RightAsRain asked me to model some of the clothing they are selling in the sim to support the show, and I was glad to help.

RaR let me pick out what to model, and I decided to be a bit racy…. Probably a first for me, but what the heck. It was fun.

-Veyron

I have to confess, for grins and giggles, I have tried out a few times for model competitions.  Vint Falken has even helped me out doing some of the photography.  As someone said, back the and it really turns out to still be true, they all end in disaster.  The last large one I entered – the ~SL Next Top Model was a complete disaster.  And really not surprisingly this Simone modeling contest appears to have ended in the same way….  The amusing part is that most of the contests make up the rules as they go.  Usually because they don’t know what the rules are to start with.  It makes it hard to win the game if you never know how to win.  And don’t give me an excuse that it adds to the excitement or is like a reality TV show.  Those TV shows have the game figured out long in advance unlike these contests.

Now whether the accusations are true or not is only part of the whole problem of these contests.  They end up being petty little personality blow outs.  Usually not worth the time or effort.  Take a look at all the time invested in the Simone contest.  Vast amounts of it.  It has a very poor cost/benefit return ratio.  That’s why I’m not really interested in contests like these anymore.  Quite frankly, it is not that difficult now days in Second Life to come up to what I would call the 90% club.  That is better looking than 90% of the rest of the avatars.  Spend enough Lindens and you’re there.  The other 10% needed to win a contest is who you know, who you suck up to and just dumb luck.  That makes it not much of a contest.

The latest contest – get all of the avatars to vote for people in a giant pool of avatars – I can’t even recall the name, seems to be an interesting popularity contest.  And that’s really what it is.  Obviously a smart move on the part of the producers of the calendar.  Popular avatars are going to sell calendars.

Second Life Modeling is also not that great of a job.  The pay is not so great.  The job is actually not that easy – you have to pay attention to what your doing and know how to manipulate your avatar.  It’s rather boring to be honest.  For example, I often have to go into mouselook to get my head turned in the right direction for a shot.  This mouselook mode is actually a BSDM form of semi-torture.  They use it for punishment.  You can’t interact with anything, you can’t talk (type), you can’t use any HUD, you can’t get at your inventory or any other menu.

Why do I do it? Ego mostly and I genuinely like to help people out.  The Lindens are nice, but not my prime motivator.  A top end escort is going to make a lot more on her job than I am modeling anytime.

Any comments from any other models out there?

-Veyron

Hmmm…  I think last night Wrath Paine volunteered to get the makeover treatment by Veyron.  And I have the perfect outfit for Wrath.  It fits Wrath vs the World perfectly…..

Wrath!

When are you volunteering to go out shopping?  I know you boys just love to shop….

-Veyron

Vint and I finally did some shopping yesterday and this morning (at least in my timezone). From the Dress Vint project, it turned out to be a lot of fun – at least for me. It did become surprising (and I think sort of intentionally) amusing at several points. The dress was pretty easy at Paper Couture. It’s pretty nice, dark, rather short skirt with an interesting poofy collar to it. That went pretty easy. Next went the shoes.

We did try Dark Eden, but Vint appeared to get cold feet with the place in general, except for an outfit she did buy to surprise someone with in the store across the mall…. (How those pasties will ever come off I’m not sure….)

Anyway, we went to my favorite place for stilettos and bought these really nice pair of shoes. Of course, there was some arguing over the shoe color. I suggested black, as that works with just about any outfit, and of course, she wanted purple (at least it wasn’t the yellow). Which I believe was some form of negotiation tactic. Anyway, we settled on the silver pair. I was really impressed though when she had panty hose to get her legs the right. Then I said – time for hair. Which then I knew the wailing would begin – and it did.

I heard about how Dalien bought the hair “style” she’s wearing and then she tried – in vain – to colorize it to fit the outfit to fend me off. TP’ing into Calico to go shopping for hair, there was a stream of protests about how she didn’t need new hair. Then I pointed out a really nice hair style, with hair put up. Then the wailing really cranked up. Something about – “Not hair put up!” I said, don’t worry, it comes with this veil.

Back and forth it went for some time. Vint would get some demo hair that was wrong, and I’d say no. We did finally settle on some hair I like a lot and I actually have myself. Another one down. Then she mentioned that her ears don’t match. I said, you’re right – loose them. Ooohh… Lots of noise. Then resignation must have set in, as she did put on a human skin, much to my pleasure.

Vint was starting to look pretty killer now. Next stop – Miriel’s. Eyes and Jewelry. Eyes started more moaning, but now the volume was down. She got this nice pair of blue eyes and a nice set of attractive earrings.

We did make a stop at Solange to see if anything else would fit in. I might want to go back there. I think we should also stop in at Insolence for some underthings – just in case…. We both ran out of time this morning, but I’m pretty pleased with the results so far.

I am tempted to get a really nice human skin for Vint. It would be the coup de grace to get a Naughty or at least a X3 skin on her. The skin she has on now, is good, but we could do better. But skins are expensive, and if she’s not going to wear it hardly at all, who knows if it’s worth the investment. Perhaps.

Last thing we need to setup is a photo shoot for our Vint model. We will need a photographer. Maybe Looker is available….

-Veyron

A new issue of OMG is out and I have an article in this issue.  It’s a reworked version of some of my previous blog entries about how to take your avatar into cyberspace.  It was fun to write and fun to do put together.  Hopefully it will be helpful to some of the new people in Second Life.  Most of you already know these tricks and tips.

You can get your own copy of OMG in world at the OMG Headquarters http://slurl.com/secondlife/Edgerley/248/7/57

I think Korbin also enjoyed taking the pictures too….

-Veyron

(Oh and the guns work – they are from Aubretec.  They’re called Widow Makers.)

So, I have a few bugs to smash on the new blog.  One of which is a highly annoying internal bug which is not allowing me to edit anything posted.  This seemed to appear at some point, as it worked while I was developing the site.  I’m working on that one.  My work around is to go into the database and hack the raw data, not an optimal solution.  If any WordPress experts out there have any ideas, let me know.  It seems from the support site, I’m not the only one who is having this problem now and then.  I’ve been tinkering turning on and off things trying to quash it.  Email me if you have ideas.

I also discovered that the site was not looking so good under Internet Explorer.  Which is notorious for having a poor CSS implementation.  I use Firefox, and I didn’t bother to check how it looked under IE (do people still use Internet Exploder?).  My bad.   I’ve also made some changes to try and make it look better under IE.  Again, let me know from the feedback form if something looks bad or wrong.  I’ll add it to my list.

Lastly, some of the old postings I imported from Blogger had the wrong URL, so I had to go into the database, and hack that up.  So, that should be right now.  At least I’m knocking a few problems off one by one.

-Veyron