Wright Flyer Storefront

Wright Flyer Store,
originally uploaded by Goshua Lament.

As you may have heard in an earlier post, I made a model of the Wright Flyer for an aircraft building contest at the Abbotts Aerodrome. I didn't have enough time to finish it then, but I am finally done now. Abbotts is holding a fair from September 1 through the 4th for aircraft and aircraft builders. I bought the stall to sell my plane and went to work.

Since we are dealing with an old aircraft, I wanted the stall to have an antique look and feel. The background textures of the stall have a sepia tone to them and are grainy. I even redesigned my logo to fit with the theme. The end result is a very neat looking storefront. I ended up using 7 layers in Photoshop to achieve the end result. Go check it out and maybe buy my plane this week in Abbotts.

Vacation: Part One

Today I leave for a one week vacation in my real life. I will be taking my Apple TiBook with me. Unfortunately, it is not powerful enough to run Second Life. I tried writing this from the T-Mobile hotspot at the airport, but it cost more than I was willing to pay for the short time that I would use it. Instead, I am plugged into a Ethernet cable in my hotel room. It's been a good trip so far, but I can't play SL. I haven't been away from SL for that long for a pretty long stretch of time. I'll keep you posted on how my login-less week goes.

Oh Assets, where art thou?

According to the Second Life Forums, and the news blog Second Edition, the asset server at Linden Lab is down. The asset server stores all of the objects, clothing, textures, avatars, scripts, snapshots, and other user created content. When you rez an object, the asset server sends a copy of the object. When the asset server is down, you are unable to rez objects from the inventory.

When I logged into Ahern this morning, several people were grey. I flew over to the Morris sandbox to rez my helicopter for my morning exploration. I dragged it to the ground and nothing happened. I was distraught!

Oddly enough, I am able to create things from scratch. I can rez cubes, and other prims. Well, at least that encourages me to be creative. But I still want my helicopter.

Message of the Day

Today's "Message of the Day", the message that appears when the game is loading was interesting.

Linden Lab will never ask your for your Second Life Password --keep you account secure, don't share your Password with anyone!

Grammar errors are Linden Lab's. It looks like it was quickly put up. What is the reason for this? Was someone's account broken into? I have heard tales of that on the forums, but never thought it might actually happen. Should I change my password? What do I do? Help!

Premium Anton by the River

Looking for premium riverside land? Look no further than Anton 104, 180 where you can buy 512 meters of land for only L$ 9,995! Best of all, it is really close to the river. You can step out of your door and step into the river. The river is a short 140 meter walk from your home! It also "borders reserved Linden land near a teleporter". The teleporter is a short 400 meter stroll from your store or homestead.

Take up this wonderful offer before it passes you by! It has been described by potential buyers as "so funny its sad" and "senic". To learn more, instant message Ulrika Zugzwang or send her an email at **Email Removed for Privacy**.

I Got Shot Again

I got shot again. I accidently hit someone with my helicopter and their autocannons gunned me down. I'm still getting used to mouselook steering functions, so it was a little hard to fly. I give up.

I Got Shot

Today I bought a helicopter and flew around. I flew into Rausch. I got shot. I died. I returned home. I repeated and died. I gave up and worked on my scripted attachments.

Hostless Events

Provoked by the recent election threads on the Second Life forums, resident Darwin Appleby decided to run for president of SL. Darwin needed to have a campaign party and speech and needed a place to hold it, so he borrowed my land in lag-free Ebisu. Over the next day, a stage was built and dressed by Baccara Rhodes of Spellbound Events.

When 7:45 pm came, and about 15 people had arrived for the event, Darwin was offline. By 8:00 the bleachers were full and Darwin was missing in action. Several guests began to ask "Where's Darwin?" and "Darwin! Darwin!". Baccara and I were confused. It is hard to keep people interested in an event where nothing is happening.

A few people got bored and left. Someone pulled out a scripted object named "Philip Linden" and "Darwin Appleby" and had some humorous conversation. Jeff Linden showed up to watch the event and stayed most of the time. The party evolved into a no-host chat. There were a few prim based avatars head banging in one corner of the area. People came and gave fake speeches. Rock Psaltery gave a power crazed speech about his governing visions to close the event. It was surprising that we could have such a good time sitting around. It was actually one of the most fun things I did that day. And the dwell was nice.

Chase! The Movie

Many of you may remember my car chase movie that I announced in an earlier post. Well, it's finally finished. I titled the movie "Chase." The video is encoded in Quicktime format and can be watched in the free Quicktime player.

Watch the Movie Here

Goshua in New World Notes

I'm famous! My quote was mentioned in the most recent issue of New World Notes, a popular blog about Second Life. The article is about the pro and anti Kerry political sites in Ebisu, the sim where my home and office is located. The article, written by Hamlet Linden, features my opinions on the sites and my political views. Excerpted from the article:

“I actually enjoy some controversy," says Goshua Lament, who owns an Ebisu dock which boasts a replica of the Wright brothers' plane, a roulette wheel, and a kiosk which dispenses Second LIFE Magazine (the fine publication which first tipped me to the Kerry headquarters.) And though he prefers Kerry, says Lament, “This morning, I made someone a Bush lawn sign… I know lots of pro and anti-Bush people in real life. I try to get along with both.”

Hamlet always does a great job with his articles. Check it out if you haven't already.

My First SL Filmmaking

I was bored today. I had been wandering around the grid for about an hour. It sounds hard to get bored in Second Life but it can happen. So I went to the forums and watched some movies that people had made. Which gave me an idea. I decided that I wanted to film a movie. So I went into Cordova and shouted "Does anyone want to film a car chase movie!" I have no idea where the car chase idea came from. Luckily for me, Phil Mars yelled back "Yeah!"

I build a platform and Phil and I sat on it. I raised it to a high 400 meters and starting building some floors. I build several roads for the set as Phil rezzed buildings. After we had the town built, we furnished it with manhole covers, plants, trash. trafic cones, and signs. Midway through the construction, Nicole Burke flew into our set. We explained our project and invited her to help.

Filming in SL is a camera man's worst nightmare. The frame rates are low, actors' clients crash, lag seizes vehicles. Somehow we managed to pull off 12 shots for a total of 750 megabytes of disk space.

All that is left to do on the project is the editing and the audio effects. The Final Cut Pro project has already been created, so it is progressing. I plan to have the film done in a week.

The process of creating this film prompted me to consiter creating a group for filmmakers in Second Life. You can read about it on the SL forums.

Aircraft Building Competition

I had some of the most fun I've ever had in Second Life yesterday. What did I do you ask? I competed in a Aircraft Building Competition at the Abbotts Aerodrome. The rules are simple: you have 30 minutes to build a plane. You must create the plane on site. All you are given is the textures in your inventory and Cubey Terra's basic plane script kit. After 30 minutes, all building ceases and the audience votes on their favorite aircraft.

I decided to create the Wright Flyer, the first airplane ever made. I started out with the top and bottom of the plane's wings. I added a seat, boiler, propellers, and more details. I even made a custom texture for the ropes that give the plane structure.

I was really happy with my plane when the 30 minutes was up. I didn't win, but that's okay. I'm going to take my plane and make it actually work. I will add a old plane sound and some particle smoke. I'll probably set the plane for sale at 150 L$ when finished, or just give it away for free.

Pictures are Here And Here