through my lungs as the dust settles

Just to note in passing--and I left a similar comment on the blog in question--but Whisper at FabFree has an amazing shape for Second Life. She is rounded without pushing the limits of the mesh; she reminds me a bit of Angel with darker hair. Very well done, Whisper.

Noted on Schnaeppchen's blog, this outfit from Burlesque Lucrezia. It's sort of tucked out of the way as a small wall placard. Looks very worthwhile.

Damien Kulash, Jr. takes on EMI in an opinion piece in the New York Times. If that name doesn't ring any bells, he's the lead singer and main guitarist for OK GO. (And if that doesn't ring any bells, this is the infamous "Treadmill" video he talks about in that article. Although I admit, I've always preferred this one, the so-called "wallpaper version" of "Do What You Want".)

From the piece:

"The numbers are shocking: When EMI disabled the embedding feature, views of our treadmill video dropped 90 percent, from about 10,000 per day to just over 1,000. Our last royalty statement from the label, which covered six months of streams, shows a whopping $27.77 credit to our account."

The numbers are shocking, and very telling; and this is also why, for their current album, OK GO is marketing an mp3-only version, along with a full shippable CD version, and two separate "I want everything" limited editions on their own site. Why? Because true devotees of the band who want such limited editions will pay for them--which will keep them creating music and covering the costs of touring that EMI may or may not be doing at present. And for the rest of us, $10 will buy us a full album with artwork and case, or shave a dollar from that and get all the songs without the album notes and artwork. And they'll make sales at those prices, too. Everybody's happy.

Except EMI.

Dusan Writer tipped me towards a scathing indictment of Sony 'Home'. Whatever they wanted it to be, it wasn't this:

"According to some digital buyers, Home exemplifies Sony’s slow-footed nature when it comes to embracing advertising."

Yeah. While they still have Red Bull, and by report, the Army is running a current campaign, most other advertisers have crept away from the strong scent of virtual failure.

'Home', meet Lively. You'll be hanging out in limbo with it soon enough.

Also from Dusan Writer--the Facebook game "Farmville" hits eighty million users. I get that people are playing it, believe me, I know that; and it even goes into why. While a lot of it is hit and miss (there's really no magic recipe for finding "the next big thing"), I'm thinking of the Nintendo game Harvest Moon and Second Life's (now slightly waning) obsession with growing, feeding and breeding virtual chickens. Whatever it is that draws the privileged towards farming without the consequences (when your crops fail in Farmville, your family doesn't starve; and there's not one single chicken in Second Life you have to run down and kill for dinner), it's huge, and it looks like it's only getting bigger.

By way of Miss Muse Carmona: "The first follower transforms a lone nut into a leader." Funny, but well put--and well demonstrated by the video.

While I like the basic concept behind Microsoft's current research that links physical/emotional health markers with avatar appearance and flexibility to play games (ostensibly to encourage good health and exercise), it still seems a bit too close to Big Brother telling me when I can go places, when I must stop being on the computer, when I must sleep...

*grins* Okay, I have a set bedtime, but one, that's personal, not impartially set according to industry guidelines, and second, I'm a lifetime insomniac and we're really, really trying to break that pattern. It's not the same thing.

Finally し て く だ さ い. 6. when the product を タ ッ チ し た あ と, チ ャ ッ ト に “/987 reload” と enters the strength し て く だ さ い. 　　こ れ で ノ ー ト カ ー ド を 読 み 込 み ま す. エ ラ ー に な ら な け れ ば preparation が で す. 　　エ ラ ー と な る the situation, the commodity テ ク ス チ ャ ー name, business commodity name が disobeys っ て い な い か the confirmation し て once again 　　タ ッ チ か ら や り straight し て く だ さ い. 7. ス キ ン セ ッ ト を writes down し た the situation, 　　When the product を タ ッ チ し た あ と, チ ャ ッ ト に “/987 skin” と enters the strength し て く だ さ い. 　　こ れ で ス キ ン セ ッ ト が cuts り for わ り ま す. 　　The plural number writes down し た the situation は goal

I bought a 'lucky board' type of thing. It's not that I paid so very much for it, but it's that it's entirely in...this. It's not Japanese. It's not Chinese, strictly. I've run it through Babelfish and t's not the same thing. I initially ran it through Google Translate on Chinese setting, and got back hash again.

But I noticed Google Translate now has something new--about mid-way down the list of languages there's a line that says simply, 'Detect language'.

I switched to that.

Purchasing a W INITIAL CHANCE you very, very thoughtful.

This product will display the initial randomly at regular time intervals, when you touch the appropriate way,
If you give them your registered products, products that are kind of so-called LuckyBoard said.

Our product features, not just first name, last name and initials also elected
Is a specification that is.

Other specifications, skin sets (fonts, backgrounds of character display, the display part-time tech products OFF
Sucha, a set of sound at the time of election) can be set into the content, the skin
May be able to be switched.
To own and texture, or change your preferences, and change to normal when the event
Ete and use, providing maximum flexibility.

Please use the products as a tool to attract customers come

Um. Thank you, Google Translate?

From Adbusters magazine, comes a definition of altermodernism. I don't entirely agree, or understand, but they seem convinced. The most I pulled from it--blurring the lines is a bad thing, but we need to reinstate the categorical opposing systems without polarizing into 'good' and 'bad' definitions--thus, we need to blur the lines on polarizing systems?

Isn't that what we're doing now?



I'm working on getting two shops up and running so I can take out ads with them. Or at least the larger one. The one in Caledon Morgaine is still so incredibly empty. I'm just running out of energy to track down vendor-things and put them up. I'll work on it.

Finally, RL because I simply have to spread this wider: Andrew Koenig is missing. There was some initial concern that this might be a stunt to drum up interest in a future comedic project; but I sincerely do not believe Walter Koenig would post that much information about his son and have it lead to a joke in the end. He's a funny man; he's very talented; but he wouldn't bandy about a disappearance of a child to fake us all out.

If you're in Vancouver, and you see Andrew Koenig, or hear of his whereabouts, please leave a comment in Koenig's guestbook. He and his wife will be in Vancouver soon to help with the investigation.