Strike a pose and head on over to this year's Pose Fair.  This is a great event for those of us that enjoy photography and modeling.  Click here to visit Pose Fair 2011.

Second Life Viewers

So much has happened recently in terms of what we use to access Second Life. There have been a lot of opinions, blogs, tweets, and plurks about it that I will not go into it here in this post. I will just say that I was a very happy user of the Emerald viewer for a long time. Over the past several weeks I have tried a few other alternative ones -- Kirstens, Phoenix, Emergence, Imprudence and yes even Second Life Viewer 2. My current viewer of choice has been Emergence. It seems to be the most stable for me (no crashes and good texture loading). So I will stick with it for awhile.

One thing users seem to forget is that of choice and expectations. We have a choice in what we use for SL and what works best for our specific needs. Some viewers are better for photography and machinima, and some work best for builders and content creators. This is why we choose certain brands of cars, soap, or computers over others. We are not going to find one that does it all.

We all want to know that the viewer we are using is not being used by certain people for malicious purposes. I also think that we would do well to remember that these viewers are provided to us for FREE and are always undergoing changes by the generosity of dedicated developers.

There are also lots of variables involved with computers (age, video cards, monitors, processors, etc...) Throughout all this, I think it's important to keep in mind that with any viewer -- "Your mileage may vary"

Busy Busy Busy

Just a short post to let you know that I am still around. It's been a very very busy week. I attended a few things at Second Pride and a few Rez Day Parties. I have been trying to get into using Photoshop more. I have been experimenting with SL Photography working with backgrounds and poses. Not sure where that is all going at the moment, but it has peeked my interest. I also have 7 bunnies and had an unexpected nest appear this week in the pen. I am going to wait on starting the birth till I figure out how far I want to take this whole bunny thing. I only have a few, but they are an added task on top of my already busy SL work and social stuff. Rocky's retreat has been a great place for me to try out new projects and I hardly get to my "other" SL home. I also continue to update the various sites for Jake's Club Resort. Peace and hugs to all my followers.

Avatars Unite!

By now, most of you who are in SL have heard about Linden Lab's recent acquisition of the company that created the Avatars United website. Since then, the site has really taken off and many SL residents have been registering, setting up profiles and even groups. The site looks promising and despite some of the negativity that has already been generated, I see this as offering great social potential for you and your avatar. It's been compared to as facebook for your avatar.

Right now, lots of people are requesting to "unite" with others. The question I have for you is this -- unless you plan to somehow connect in-world and/or out -- Why send a request to a total stranger? If you are have a group, are you planning to use it as a marketing tool to promote your business? The potential is there if you choose to use it. I would suggest that you ask your self the question "Why," because we already have those who will "friend" you in SL never to be heard from down the road.

Comments are always welcome.

Just for the Guys Hunt

Yes, I have been a bad boy lately, but I promise to knuckle down and post more on my blog.

I just wanted to mention this hunt for those of you who enjoy them. This is an opportunity for you to get out and explore some shops and check out some new clothes. Like I mentioned before, it's always hit and miss with what you find on these hunts. Some stuff will be better than others depending on your own personal taste.

All the info is on the blog here : http://jftg.blogspot.com/

Let's go Shopping!

It's no surprise that shopping is one of my favorite things to do in SL. It can be pretty fun to try out new clothes on your avatar and see how they look. You can even play around with styles you may never consider wearing in your first life.

I recently discovered a very active blog called :ShopaholicFeed.com
I do need to warn you that if you add this one to your feed reader, it will explode as there are lots of entries daily. So go check it out.

Finding interesting stuff to do in Second Life

Great Tips from this blog : http://music-island.blogspot.com/

New residents frequently arrive at Music Island, discover that there is no concert that day and say, 'But how do I find stuff to do that I'm interested in? I have been exploring empty spaces for DAYS!!!!!'

1. First understand that Second Life is organized like the rest of the Social Web. People move in response to events and associations. So finding events of interest by simply popping about the SL Grid is not likely to work too well.

2. Find active groups that interest you: Search on groups via key words in the SL search engine. Find one that looks interesting and with open membership and join. Now look at past notices to see if the group is active. If you don't see notices that interest you, then drop the group and look for another one. Another way to find groups that interest you is to use the same search terms under the 'places' tab in search. Visit places of interest and see if there are groups to join. Soon you'll be getting notices of events of interest.

3. Use the SL 'Events' search engine: Select 'live music', 'education' or any other category from the drop down menu in the Events Tab in Search. Then press the search button. Lots of events will appear. Since the listings are not too well-policed there will be some irrelevant returns, but you will still likely see a number of events of interest to you.

Test your Voice Chat

Adult Content Changes in Summary

There has been a lot buzz about the changes happening later this month with regards to adult content on SL. Some of the ground work is already in place with the latest Release Candidate version of the viewer. You may want to follow this SL Blog to keep up with what is a very hot topic. Here is a link to get you started.

A Phone Number for Your Avatar

AvaLine: Assigns residents a Second Life phone number (via an extension), enabling friends and business associates to call directly from a landline, cell phone or VOIP application. Users can opt in for either a monthly or annual contract, although for the next six weeks, the service will be free to the first 1,000 residents who join the beta (visit the Second Life blog for details). Monthly and annual fee has yet to be determined. Full rollout due prior to the end of June. Visit this page for more information.

Second Life Takes Aim at Skype

I caught this post over at Gigaom.com and wondered how many SL residents also use Skype. I recently started using Skype to chat with some of my SL friends. Just mention in local chat that you are a skyper and you will see a few people chime in with a text that they too use skype and share there Skype name. So what about SL voice? I recently mentioned that I have added that ability to my SL experience, eventhough I rarely use it. I can see how it would be quite useful to use for certain situations. Voice chat can be great for collaborating on projects or when explaining a certain task or technique. Do you Skype?

Fashion SLURLs

I discovered this site which is fairly new. They do invite others to contribute SLURLs to the list. This project is a huge task for any one single person, especially with updating site locations. My initial check of this site showed that the content and the SLURLs tend to lean on the side of women's fashion, but you may want to explore the site further. Here is the link.

Meta Makeover is now Designing Worlds

This post is for all of you who are interested in creating a nice home living experience in Second Life. I try to catch a few of the programs on SLCN TV when I can. Some of the makeovers in the past have been really good. Now they have a new name and a new website. You can learn more by going here.

1200+ Active Second Life-Related Blogs

So many blogs, so little time to read them, but its nice to know that the SL community is very active in the blogosphere. I just caught this story over at New World Notes. The complete list can be found at the Second Effects blog. These are based on Technorati rankings and are the most active.

Congrats to my friend JC who made the list with his blog Midcourt at #65. The JAKES OF SECOND LIFE blog (Rocky currently authors this one), came in at #95.

UPDATE - Ok, it looks like I missed a few others that also deserve recognition. Not only did I miss this blog #99, but a few others. Thanks to my friend, Jago Constantine over at Sex Afficiando for scanning the list more carefully.

Rocky Goes to School in SL

The other day I got an IM from my friend Ritch. He wanted to know if I was interested in taking a class in SL. The class was on scultpies. I had always wanted to take a class in SL to see what they were all about and hopefully learn a new skill. So here was my opportunity. Ritch told me the class starts in 10 minutes and I had to download a program first and head on over to the classroom. The freeware program is called ROKURO.

When I arrived I was surprised to find my friend Tyler also at the class and Troy showed up later. It was a neat experience. I signed up for the group and now look forward to taking other classes they have to offer. Check out their website here and the blog is here. New Citizens Incorporated

When does a door open the wrong way?

Ok, this post has nothing profound to say about the idea of an "open door brings opportunity". It's really about my boo boo last night. I was home in SL making some adjustments to the doors of the house to change the greeting and that went well on a few doors. But then I could not get the notecard to open on a few of the doors. Duke explained to me that I needed to unlink any parts associated with the door. Bingo! that did the trick.

Later I noticed that one of the doors was swinging open the wrong way. Ugh.. now what? Duke comes to my aid again and after I rotate the door and get it into postion he points me to a place in the viewer that will reset the scripts. Yay! Working with object problems can be a pain, but having Duke there to offer assistance makes it easier to handle. Thanks.

Resources for Second Life

Here is a list of 50+ SL tools that may be helpful to residents. Some may be out of date, but I am sure you can find some gems in the list : SECOND LIFE TOOLBOX: 50+ Resources for Second Life

Metaverse Messenger

This weekly publication is a great way to start exploring all kinds of things happening in SL. You can find info on Entertainment, Library, Fashion and the Sim of the Week. It usually comes out on Tuesday and is available online in PDF. The website is : http://metaversemessenger.com/index.html

Second Life Social Networks

Here are a few Social Networks you may want to join:

Avatars United: Dedicated to many MMOG’s and Virtual Worlds but has an interesting premise. One login for as many virtual world personalities that you may have.

Koinup: A social network dedicated to sharing art, machinima and virtual world stories. Koinup seems to have been dominated by Second Lifers but also includes others.

Rezzed.net: One of the smaller Second Life specific social networks. Rezzed.net includes a shoutbox, event listings, and a Status update.

SLProfiles: The oldest Second Life social network.

SLScout: Ran by the NingID system, SLScout seems the most AJAX of all the social networks here. It uses a single login (as many social networks on the NingID system)

SLUniverse: Although not a social network in definition, this community site is one of the longest running Second Life community sites.