They start recording live  at 4:30 pm SLT.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Northpoint/181/130/32

Hope to see you there

In 2007, I wondered: How unique are Second Life avatars, really? While the slider combinations alone offer hundreds upon thousands of possibilities, the sheer amount of content available in SL (some several dozen terabytes and counting) must make the total number damn near infinite.

So, I set myself upon a project: Take 1000 pictures of 1000 different avatars across the entire grid. Over the next three years, I took well over 1000 pictures of avatars "in the wild" - without planning, posing, or really even any destinations in mind save for piles of green dots on SL's map.

In the process I've visited country clubs, piano concerts, crashed a philosopher's club, watched a wrestling match, stumbled into various fetish dungeons, and plowed into exclusive establishments like some sort of insane paparazzi. Nearly all of the avatars are anonymous; the filenames are randomized to break up the monotony of the backgrounds.

I've come away from the project with the feeling that, indeed, Second Life avatars are insanely unique. We're all snowflakes, this time around.

Music: "Additive Piano" by Lordfly Digeridoo (mp3 available upon request)

Special thanks to Luth Brodie, Moo Money, Cristiano Diaz, my patient wife, and everyone else who puts up with me.

More information:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/josheikenberry/sets/72157623240888222/

Coming soon: Hosted on Snapzilla.com, for a better interface rather than Flickr. Also, an in-world gallery using the new web tools in the 2.0 viewer.

I'm just happy I have the video finished, finally.

I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Try as I might, however, I've never really been able to duplicate that sort of cobbled-together steamworks-type thing very well. While I did manage to make a rusty mechanical arm, it looked more like a machine gun than a functional hand, and didn't really scream "steampunk", more like "Oh god what is that on your arm you freak".

I tried again more recently, with more rusted-out construction setups, but again, the idea fizzled. Then I came upon the idea to construct a clock tower. Except... powered by STEAM!

While that may sound either mundanely uncreative and/or amazingly original, it's not really either; steam-powered clocks have been made in the real world, albeit in the 1970s (see the Gastown clock in Vancouver). None have really been made on a large scale before, however.

Not being a mechanical engineer, I wasn't really about to set out and design a working, honest-to-god Steam clock. Instead, I set about setting some basic construction rules, and applied those rules to my design as it was being built. The result is something that, well, LOOKS like it might, possibly, work, in theory.

I did have some help this time around, from several sources. Erich Templar has a set of steampunk textures that I have co-opted into my design, providing many of the metal textures I needed to realize my tower. And, of course, Steampunk is not complete without a set of gears, and the gear set supplied by Talin Sands is perfect for the task. I was also helped by the wonderful Lord Humphrey and Beezle Warburton, who supplied some simple clock scripts for me to doodle with.

Now, on to the tower itself. It's a doozy, weighing in at over 650 prims and jutting into the sky over 65m tall. Constructed of brick and steel, there are many windows to peer into the inner workings of the mechanical bits. Gears turn, steam hisses, and the clock ticks menacingly. Every hour upon the hour the steam pipe at the top of the structure sings the Westminster chimes, albeit with steam rather than bells (again, an idea taken from the Gastown clock). The bottom part of the tower is the most open, allowing people to use the space amongst the shiny copper pipes for their own amusements. At the top of the clockworks sits a small alcove, flanked on all sides by the clock's gears. It would be perfect for a study or any other private space. The ticking of the mechanisms would lull almost anyone to sleep... or to madness, I guess.

Because I feel it's a rather unique design (and also because it's freaking huge and not really prefabbable), I'm going to be releasing a very limited edition of the clock tower. Only ten will be sold. There exists one in-world already, a gift for a friend in the sim Phasma. There also exists the original in my workshop, but that is merely temporary.

Each Steamworks Clock Tower will come with an individually-numbered copper plaque, as well as a signed "certificate" (well, a fancy texture anyway) with the serial number as well as my signature. I will also help with setup, if desired (the gears tend to get squirrelly if you rotate the design). The Clock Tower will be sold copy/mod/notrans, like everything else in my store.

The release date is coming soon, but will most probably happen after the Christmas season. Stay tuned to my plurk, twitter, or this blog for announcements. Pricing is also coming soon, but it will certainly be well under $L7500.

Aside from that, enjoy the pics of the tower in action, and have a good Christmas. -LF

Secondly, to celebrate the consumer orgy that is Black Friday, the entire store will be 90% off - yeah, 90% off. The Agora fatpack? $L330. The friggin Painter's Loft? $L75. Seventy-five.

Don't forget about the new Abbey, as well - a self-contained non-denomonational church, only $L75.

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lalique/119/87/28

Friday (today) only! Please note that this only applies to in-world store visits, not XSL.

Enjoy!

-LF

I especially like the photos. Not sure why. Kind of pensive, but serious.

Thanks Achariya for a great way for content creators to express themselves in this ongoing debate!

The Abbey features a small foyer opening into a grandly lit worship room. Wide open, with floor to ceiling windows illuminating the area, the Abbey is lovingly hand-made and includes baked shadows and lighting effects, as well as custom-made stained glass patterns.

While the building is obviously modeled after Christian structures, the building can equally serve any denomination or religion. The Abbey's windows are purposely opaque  to separate the noisy world from that of quiet spiritual contemplation.

Finally, the Abbey also includes a working bell tower. The bell quietly chimes every hour.

Illumine Abbey is 439 prims, is copy/mod, and normally costs $L750. However, because of the Protest Day sale, the Abbey is currently only $L375!

Currently the Abbey is only at my Lalique location.

Stupid protests are stupid. Support your content creators. Buy their stuff.

While you're at my store, grab a copy of the propaganda poster. hang it on your wall. Give to your friends!

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lalique/39/112/29

Foot, meet gun. You may fire when ready.

I say screw that. Punishing legitimate customers for the transgressions of a few sociopaths is folly, and does nothing except make more people wonder if this Copybot thing really aint' such a bad idea after all (hint: it's still a bad idea).

In response, I am offering a counter protest, as suggested by the great Siggy Romulus. Instead of closing my store during the protest, I'll be having a sale. Everything in my Lalique store will be 50% off.  That means for scarcely a song, you can have some of the best building designs on the grid. A painted lighthouse for $L375? Come on. An environmentally conscious prefab home made out of recycled shipping containers, only $L750? A steal!

While you're there, grab a complimentary copy of my protest poster. Free to copy and mod!

Who: Lordfly Digeridoo and Grid.Living

What: 50% off sale for entire store.

When: November 5th and 6th, all day

Where: Lalique

Why: Because customers are neat.