February | 2008 | Janey's place in Second Life

Theft a problem for Second Life Designers

February 28, 2008

Well, as I told you, I had a story to break and had been to an interview the other night with some Second Life Designers who are being ripped off by thieves. My friend Pinkie Delcon put me on to this in the first place, and I’d like to thank her on this blog for bringing this to my attention. I felt so sorry for these gifted people, who make Second Life so special to us with their fantastic work, the Lindens must sort this out otherwise they will give up and SL will be a dull place indeed. You can read the report at: http://beta.ireport.com/home/people/JaneyBracken

We need to support these designers by not buying cheap ripped off items and reporting anything that we think has been stolen. Pass this on to all your friends. PS someone left a comment on the article saying this picture was xxx rated, well can’t agree with that, these are nicely photographed avatars and quite beautiful. Pictures like this can be seen all over Second Life to advertise skins for sale. Also these posters belong to Chez Nabob, a wonderful person who is starting a campaign tomorrow to help the designers, you can catch more at http://shop.onrez.com/item/533825

5 Comments | Theft a problem for Second Life Designers | Tagged: designers, Lindens, Pinkie Delcon, ripped off, Theft | Permalink
Posted by Janey Bracken

CNN Meeting and Rival Charity groups

February 27, 2008

Had a real busy evening last night, I had a meeting to go to for a forthcoming story (which I hope will be very interesting once published, as its quite sensational!). Then back to Murray for a short visit, before going to the CNN regular meeting for chat and updates with the real life CNN reporters there. I had teleported to Murray and arrived on the hilly bit next to the sea. I was still picking up my IM messages as another av approached me and asked if I was the reporter who published the CNN article ‘Haven for Autistic people in sl’ He was clearly a member of another Autism group and asked me some inquisitive questions about Dave Sparrow, who I wrote the article about, almost trying to find some sort of dark past about Dave. I told the av that it would be a good idea if the other groups who support Autistic people all got together with Dave and share their ideas, after all they shouldn’t be rivals if they are aiming at really helping people, what a ridiculous way to carry on, being rivals instead of pulling together!! I asked him if he had seen Dave himself and he said yes a couple of time, so I can’t figure out why he was asking me about him. Come on all you fragmented groups, stop trying to take the credit and putting others down, work together to get things done, you are losing sight of the sufferers needs and more interested in your own status!!!! Time soon went and me Head and Pinkie headed towards the CNN Future site for the meeting.

We went over the stories that we had had published on the new Beta site, Nicole ireport filled us in on bits and pieces of how the site is going. We still have problems with it, like the comments not getting on and stuff and other little bits that need tweaking. Think they are quite happy with it so far though and I must admit I like to be able to publish on there without waiting for CNN to do it as on the other CNN blog page. Someone mentioned the US election that is going on at the moment and coverage of that, which no one can doubt is an important event in the US. However, Nicole suggested that the entire meeting should be based on covering it next week, which is great for the US ireporters, but I agreed with Headburro and might give next week a miss just this once, as being from the UK, it would not be a priority for us to cover, and US irporters have all the knowledge of their own elections anyway. Nicole had done a good job with the meeting, quite a few new people there asking questions and she is good at covering all the points. Head and I stayed for a chat with her afterwards and told her about some of our jaded history battling it out in Murray with the griefers, hope we didn’t bore her to tears, lol. It was late then and we all went on our ways into real life.

2 Comments | CNN Meeting and Rival Charity groups | Tagged: Autism, CNN, Dave Sparrow, griefers, Haven for Autistic People in sl, Headburro Antfarm, Murray, Nicola ireport, rivals | Permalink
Posted by Janey Bracken

Monet’s work of Art, but a loser at Combat

February 24, 2008

A bit out of order with this blog, but so much has happened this week to keep me busy!! A few days ago I was battling it out with Drax playing combat cards. Now he hasn’t been playing very long compared with me, but he seems to have a natural talent for sword fighting, I try my best, but once again ended up in the mud mortally wounded, well not mortally as I’m still here to tell the tale.

Wounding me didn’t seem to upset Drax too much, in fact it gave him an appetite and he went off to eat his dinner in real life!!! While I had been playing, Monet Fitzgerald had IM’d me, she asked me over to look at the Liner that she has been renovating, saying that she had now finished it. Straight from battle, with my blood hardly dry, I teleported over there and met Monet with some of her friends. I spotted Pinkie had come on line and offered her a teleport to have a look round as well.

There is so much to see, Monet, skilled as ever, has gone into such detail with the Liner, the sumptuous dining area complete with buffet of steaming food, would be a wonderful place to hold a wedding reception. There is another banqueting room fully laid out, but my favourite room was the bedroom with the massive four poster bed, this room had windows all round giving it a lovely atmosphere.

Drax joined us again for a little while for the final look round and we ended up on the deck of the liner, where Monet handed out parachutes for us to jump off of the liner. I said goodbye to Monet, it was nice seeing her again and great to see how all her hard work had paid off. Drax and I jumped off the deck together, but for some reason I just hung in the air and he beat me to the ground, so he had to offer me teleport to enable me to join him, SL is very strange sometimes.

Pinkie and I headed over to Combat Cards, where we met Head. Not a good evening for me again, as far as the Cards were concerned, as I was beaten yet again, it was still a laugh though, and I don’t really mind losing. Enjah turned up for a short time in a stylish black and white costume, she didn’t compete, just amused us on her mono cycle. We’ve got the championships on the 2nd March, so I will have to practice and get my deck sorted before then. I went back to real life fairly tired after such an active evening.

6 Comments | but a loser at Combat, Monet's work of Art | Tagged: combat cards, Drax Ember, Enjha Mysterio, Headburro Antfarm, Liner, Monet Fitzgerald, Pinkie Delcon | Permalink
Posted by Janey Bracken

American Art in Second Life

February 21, 2008

Schmonson Dalglish is holding a wonderful exhibition of rare American pictures made out of gemstones, I interviewed him as the art world has turned its back on this art and does not recognize it in real life. Read my CNN article at http://beta.ireport.com/home/people/JaneyBracken and give Schmonson as much support as possible against the snobbery of the art world.

3 Comments | American Art in Second Life | Tagged: American Art, Art, CNN, gallery, Lapidary, Schmonson Dalglish | Permalink
Posted by Janey Bracken

Botanical Gardens and Pesty Little Nazna

February 19, 2008

My lovely friend Wheemzel contacted me a few days ago and told me about a place called Botanical Gardens that she said was well worth a visit. I met Drax and asked him if he would like to look round there, so we teleported over to the beautiful sim. We weren’t disappointed, the red brick path takes you through stunning woodland and rocky terrain with waterfalls and rivers running through. It is a really nice place to visit and full of atmosphere with all the sounds of a forest thrown in for full effect. Thanks Wheemzel we really enjoyed our time there.

Went to Murray last night and little pest Nazna was there again. She looked really pretty and she held something that looked like an orange in her hands. She had been a nuisance before I arrived and Garic had been putting her in a cage because the orange turned out to be a weapon which fires cola machines at you (the sort you get a can of cola out of!!!). She had fired constantly at poor Garic who took it all in good part. He came back after being booted by her with his police officer uniform on to warn her.

Anyway she continued to knock Garic 50 meters away and in the end he sat exhausted and she had to cheek to sit with him. Finally he collapsed giving up putting the little pest straight.

Nazna is so funny and entertaining that you don’t mind her being there (unless she repeatedly boots me of course), we all had such a laugh and hats off to Garic who let her get away with it.

7 Comments | Botanical Gardens and Pesty Little Nazna | Tagged: Botanical Gardens, Drax Ember, forest, Garic, Murray, Nazna, Wheemzel | Permalink
Posted by Janey Bracken

First story on CNN new IReport Page.

February 18, 2008

CNN offered me membership to their new beta page where they have mixed real life ireports in with ‘second life’ ones, it means i can put my stories straight on without being edited by CNN. CNN have kindly put a few of my older stories in there already, and today I finished my new story about the wonderful Dave Sparrow who has opened a sim to help fellow Autism suffers. You can see the story at http://beta.ireport.com/home/recent-updates.jspa?sortBy=latest&numResults=15&filterBy= Now on http://secondlife.blogs.cnn.com/ as well.

5 Comments | First story on CNN new IReport Page | Tagged: Aspergers Syndrome, Autism, CNN, Dave Sparrow, ireports | Permalink
Posted by Janey Bracken

In My space at Ahern and what a crowd at Murray

February 17, 2008

I sometimes pop into the meeting areas to have a look at whats going on with the newbies arriving. They can be delightful sometimes just listening to them chatting. I usually stand just out of the way, at the top of the little stairs, and watch over the concourse where most of the action unfolds. Ahern, on this occasion was getting quite busy and the lag was worse than ever.

Well you know you take your chances with newbies rushing through the place, and nine out of ten times they will barge into you on their way through. You just apply your movelock tool, so they can’t push you along, and pretty much ignore them, as most of the time they don’t mean to do it. Funny though, how you can’t have a bit of space to yourself, just like standing looking in a shop window in real life, someone thinks you are onto something good and wants to stand in the same spot. Wasn’t long before I got a crowd round me.

I also had the pleasure of two of the tallest people I’ve seen being in my space with me and thought they made a funny picture, I hope the goth has seen the error of his ways by now and got his outfit sorted. The other tall guy was quite intriguing though, very nicely turned out.

Another guy barged into me twice and when I profiled him I saw that he wasn’t a newbie but had been around for some time. I IM’d him and said ‘I see you are not a newbie, so why the pushing?’ There was a stunned silence for a bit then he came back and said ‘sometimes I can be a dic, sorry’ and then said ‘I can be nervous around girls and either push or stab them’ (I think he was joking about the stab bit). Anyway I ended up having a laugh with him as I directed him to chat up a girl near him, which he did, and she told him to get lost, which was hilarious

Ended that evening meeting Pinkie at Murray, well what a night, quite a large crowd turned up. The little pest Nazna had also been around earlier, pushing and shoving me and then offering friendship, I’m not too sure who’s alt she is, but she is funny to watch.

Sweet excitable Eliza had been given some flowers for Valentines day and gave me a bunch of roses as well, which was really nice, she then danced around all night, she’s really a happy person and so good to everyone, giving us all gifts if she has something new. Head arrived, which it was great to see him, and Smallbutt thought it was time to disappear, think Head worries him a bit. I decided to go on home as well to see if my house was still standing (which I’m planning on demolishing tomorrow, but thats another story ……).

1 Comment | In My space at Ahern and what a crowd at Murray | Tagged: Ahern, Goth, meeting place, Murray, Nazna, newbies, pushing, Valentines day | Permalink
Posted by Janey Bracken

Horse Riding with Pinkie and CNN meeting

February 14, 2008

It’s nice to see more of Pinkie now she is on line again just lately, we had a such a lot of laughs and adventures together in the past and I really missed her and Head as they had real life commitments, which has kept them away from sl. I asked her if she would like to go to the AKK Ranch and get a demo horse so we could go riding and said said yes. I used Colin who always likes the chance of having a look round AKK at all the lady horses! Second life has been a bit odd lately, full of lag and Pinkie was having a tough time seeing things as they failed to rez for her, so we had a bit of a communication problem at first, still we managed to get her a horse and go exploring. I spied Spritely Pixel, one of the AKK Ranch owners, over the other side and went to say hello, he was sitting on a new horse that had flames for his mane and tail and giant wings, quite impressive, especially when flying I should imagine. Pinkie and I then set off to look round the sim.

Pinkie’s horse looks like he’s eating an extremely small lion in the last picture, I can only say that, one, I didn’t see any lions on the rout, and two, don’t think the horse would eat fresh meat anyway, so I expect it is my bad photography, lol. After our ride we headed over to Murray which was fairly deserted except for Forbid who was trying out a skull attachment, which he thought was good.

Drax dropped in for a few minutes to Murray and it was really nice to see him, I had a CNN meeting later, but he had other commitments and couldn’t go, however, Pinkie said she could make it. I contacted Head and he said he would try to make it as well, which was really good, as it was going to be about relationships in sl and I had posted a report on it as had Jim Sella. It must be very hard to arrange these meetings and to find subjects to keep everyone talking and interested and I looked forward to hearing the discussion. They had invited some people there who owned Second Life dating agencies and the whole discussion was about who used them and why, plus what did people think about sl relationships and whether they lasted. Head didn’t stay long and Pinkie also had to leave after a while, as I think the discussion did go round in circles a bit and to my shame I didn’t really have any input into it, so I probably didn’t help matters. I think though, that these agencies don’t play a big part in sl, as most people tend to meet others out and about and find they form a friendship and go on to build a more serious relationship, probably the best thing about sl is that the shyest person would eventually pluck up enough courage to talk to strangers, as it’s easy to meet other avs, unlike real life face to face situations where rejection is feared. I have some exciting news for my cnn reports as they are being included in a new ireport cnn webpage, mixed in with real life reports, its only at a beta stage so far, but means I will be able to put my stories straight on there as I write them. Oh the pressure!!! only kidding! Have to go out and get some more good stories now.

19 Comments | Horse Riding with Pinkie and CNN meeting | Tagged: AKK Ranch, CNN, Dating Agencies, Horses, Murray, second life relationships, skull, Spritely Pixel | Permalink
Posted by Janey Bracken

Trouble with Sandboxes

February 11, 2008

After looking round the shops with Drax to see what furniture he needed for his house, I suddenly got all fired up again to do some building, I haven’t done anything serious for some time. My friend Headburro has a lovely skybox I can use to build on, but sometimes I like to go where there are other people building so that I don’t feel too isolated. I picked a sandbox to go to and selected a spot without any other avs being too close. Drax had seen some bedroom furniture he fancied, so I decided to have a go at making it for him. Well I was quite enjoying myself, halfway through building the base of the bed when another av came over to ask me what I was building. We discussed the bed and he said he was a builder as well, which was nice. However, I wanted to carry on and he rezzed a chair and sat about 6 feet away from me to watch, then another av joined him. I’m not an expert builder and I have to fiddle around with the prims quite a lot and I wasn’t really all that happy about an audience. Suddenly a car appeared and ran into me as well, that was it, enough is enough, I collected my half made bed and wished the others goodbye and moved on to another sandbox. Started again picking an isolated spot to start building, rezzed the half made bed and little stool I was making to the floor and carried on for about 5 minutes when another av suddenly landed right near my feet. He was a cute little av this time and quite chatty.

I talked to him for a while as he changed into a few different furry shapes, then settled for a fox av and told me he would buy some clothes for the full foxy look. Nice talking to him, but not getting my stuff built, so I collected up the furniture again and headed for Headburro’s Island. Peace and quiet at last as I finished the furniture there (still have to scale it down a bit though as it is too big for the house at the moment). Drax arrived and caught me moving his stuff around again, as I was sorting out where the bedroom furniture should go. He didn’t mind though and he installed a lovely fireplace and we then put everything straight. It looks really nice and cosy in there now.

Started to think about my house, I like changing things anyway, so I might try to build some sort of tent for the beach, nice big one for the summer. I started off at a sandbox again just now, but got chatting to a friendly girl, so once again didn’t get anything done, was nice meeting her though, sometimes getting on with people is more important, so I gave up on the building there, and finally came home and started on the roof of the tent at my place (trouble is I can’t build much there as I don’t have many prims), I’ll let you know how it goes on.

I looked around a new clothes shop earlier today as well, and out of the blue got an IM from another av who was shopping there -[5:12] Saraah Aeon: hello
[5:12] Janey Bracken: hello
[5:13] Saraah Aeon: i’m sorry but i haven’t got any money for buy clothes have you got 202l$ for me ? please it’s 299 and i’ve only 97l$
[5:13] Janey Bracken: if you read my profile you will know that I don’t give money away
[5:13] Saraah Aeon: ok sorryy
[5:14] Saraah Aeon: i don’t have read
[5:14] Janey Bracken: think you should go and earn some like the rest of us, instead of begging from strangers

Don’t know if this annoys anyone else like it does me, it happens quite a lot, people asking for money. Before I bought some Linden dollars I used to spend ages camping to earn some money and would never dream of cadging other peoples. I do give money to newbies occasionally and I like to spend money on my friends, gives me a real buzz and I do it because I think a lot of them. But beggars beware, I think you are despicable as it states on my profile.

P.S. CNN have just printed my story about Love, see http://secondlife.blogs.cnn.com/

6 Comments | Trouble with Sandboxes | Tagged: beggers, Buiding, CNN, Drax Ember, furniture, Headburro Antfarm, http://secondlife.blogs.cnn.com/, Sandboxes | Permalink
Posted by Janey Bracken

Murray Maniacs and arranging furniture at Drax’s House

February 9, 2008

Stopped by to pick up the gossip in Murray and there was a good crowd there having a laugh. Rubi had a strange but pretty little av on that looked like a bird with pink and purple feathers, Stef looked really glamorous with white blond hair and a fabulous figure hugging outfit. Then they both fell over in a big heap and Garic, in his posh white uniform, tried to grab Rubi’s feathers and ended up on the floor as well.

Think Garic got mud on his clothes and promptly stripped them off, good job Rubi’s feathers were in the right place when I took the picture.

Seems that the Murray Maniacs are alive and well and still having fun there, I popped off before we all collapsed and went over to join Drax for a game of Combat cards. We had been having a wager and this was the last round to see who would win. Trouble is he is getting too good at it and I really struggle to keep up.

I hadn’t been very lucky the day before and lost a couple of matches, but my luck was in today and I beat him by a narrow margin. As he had an extreme loss of blood and felt a bit weak from our game (only joking!!!) I thought I would go over to his house and arrange his furniture for him, as he has just moved in. By losing the wager he will have to do a few jobs around the house for me as well, have to think up something nasty like plumbing or washing up. Think his house could do with a coat of paint, so might make him do that as well.

I met Drax briefly this morning as well, and we decided to go horse riding at the AKK Ranch again, it was a lovely morning and we enjoyed riding round the sim finding places we had not seen before, they are making it prettier all the time there adding deer and flower gardens, we spent quite a while wandering until we both had to go back to real life.

Bye the way, I have had big trouble with crashing in Second Life, quite often having to restart my computer up to 10 times. I look at a site called ‘thegridlive.com’ and there was a mention that new drivers for the graphics cards had just been released a month ago that would help with Windlight. I thought this was worth a try and downloaded the GeForce driver as well as any others I could find for my laptop that might help. Well its great, yes I still crash, but much, much less than before, so its worth the 5 minutes to upgrade the drivers, can’t do any harm, so if you are having problems give it a try.

6 Comments | Murray Maniacs and arranging furniture at Drax's House | Tagged: AKK Ranch, combat cards, Drax Ember, flower gardens, GeForce, Murray Maniacs, riding, Windlight | Permalink
Posted by Janey Bracken

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Janey’s place in Second Life