Fifty Foot Vixen At The Newser Office

 

 It's not often I see huge avatars other than dragons, also known as macros, going around, especially outside the Fantasy Faire. But after a conversation with Kalista Phoenix on Discord, we met up at the Newser office. Her height was, impressive, close to fifty feet tall.

 

We may meet again at the Fantasy Faire, or perhaps sooner. 

 

And no, she's not interested in attacking, unlike a certain other fifty foot lady (song).  

 

Bixyl Shuftan 

 

Return To VR Chat

 

 It's been a while since I was last on VR Chat, and several days ago, I finally went there and joined a couple friends who have come to spend more time there than Second Life. Some things haven't changed, such as avatars not able to be dressed like they can be in our virtual world and any attachments need to be constantly held in your hand, dropping if you take your finger off the button. But some things have such as the potential size of some regions. One was so huge, my friend told me over a hundred kilometers across, you needed a car to go across, and it took a while. 

 

So I may write more about VRChat in the months ahead. I say may as I have my hands on a few projects. Time will tell.

 

Bixyl Shuftan

 

This Saturday at The Science Circle

 

Saturday March 1

 

    ~*~

 

    At 10 AM PST   

    Harnessing Large Language Models (LLMs) in Digital Medicine

    https://www.sciencecircle.org/event/llms-in-digital-medicine/

    By Karthik Prathaban

    Auditorium

 

    ~*~

 

    NOTE: Non-members required to register once

    IM Jes Cobalt or Nymf Hathaway

╚══════════════════════════════ The Science Circle (72,129,30) ═╝

EOTB: Applications For SL20B Exhibitors And Volunteers Now Being Accepted, Adult-Rated and Multiple Exhibits An Option

 

 

 For those looking to have an exhibit in the upcoming Second Life Birthday, or want to be one of the volunteer staff, now's your chance. Yesterday on Monday April 3, Linden Lab announced they were accepting applications for exhibitors and volunteers for the SL20B.

This year’s Birthday theme is Our Fantastic Future. The cornerstone of this idea is what we would define as eco-futurism including sustainability, a focus on our environment, and the next generation of our world. Some might call this science fiction, but what is science fiction except a dream for a possible future? In Second Life we build worlds. Our worlds, our way. For SL20B, we invite you to show us your worlds of the future!

This year, exhibitors have several options that were not available before. For the first time ever, exhibitors will be able to have adult-rated themed displays. They can also have multiple exhibits, being able to bring one from a previous SLB back again. They can also have an exhibit whose theme is of something about Second Life's history. And there are now three categories of parcel sizes instead of two.

There are a few things to be aware of for this very special twentieth birthday celebration of Second Life. 

1. We will have Adult content exhibit regions for the first time this year!

2. We are offering LARGE parcels. They are 4096 plots with 1872LI allottments. 

3. You can have MULTIPLE exhibits! Have a favorite exhibit (or many) from the last nineteen Birthday celebrations? Bring it AND design a completely new exhibit for this year as well! Please fill out an application for each exhibit idea.

4. Birthday Reboots is an exhibit category focused on a second viewing of a favorite exhibit from a past SLB.

5. Second Life History is an exhibit category focused on sharing highlights of Second Life's past twenty years.

 

It should be noted that the adult-rated SL20B regions, or region, will be located separately away from the rest of the SLB sims (presumably to keep underage residents from panning around to see them).

 

To apply to be an SL20B exhibitor, one needs to fill out an application on Google doc (here). If you want a water parcel or a medium or large parcel, you will need to explain why. As before, applying does not guarantee a parcel, and there are a limited amount of spaces (and likely more people applying as this is a key anniversary). Commercial exhibits are prohibited (a store or merchant can have an exhibit built, but the commercial activities will be limited to the Shop and Hop that will be going on at the time), and political & hateful themes are prohibited. And once a parcel is set, do not expect to be able to have it moved on request. Any questions can be brought to a Mole coordinator, but the Moles have the final say on exhibits.

 

For those interested in being part of the volunteer staff, fill out this Google-doc (here). Volunteers are asked to post which times they are available to work, what type of body their avatar is (for custom-made volunteer shirts), and what positions they're interested it. It is to be understood that volunteers are expected to be helpful and courteous, and will not get paid (other than the shirt).

Like SL20B performers, exhibitors and volunteers have until May 14th to apply (those applying to be part of the Music Fest have until April 9, a few days from now). The SL20B lasts from June 22 to July 11. 

For more information, check the official blog.

Bixyl Shuftan

Cat And Mouse

 

 Taken by Penny Shuftan (Deaflegacy)  at her home in Sunweaver Space. One of her pet breedable Kitticats grew up to be quite large. But it still won't bother a furry mouse of the two-legged kind.

 

Interview with Fop (KingForri), Giant of Natoma

 

 So how tall was the tallest avatar you've seen in Second Life? For some residents who haven't been around much, they may not have seen avatars much taller than they. For those who have explored some and been to some notable events, they may have seen an occasional macro that can get to be around fifty feet tall. And then there's the avatar of Fop (KingForri). Encountered at the Natoma sim, he easily stood over the Ivory Tower. Yours truly got in contact, and he had a few things to say. 

 

Read the interview in People. 

 

Giant Avatar at The Ivory Tower

 

 Going by Natoma the other day in one of my Rezz alts, I saw this huuuuuuge avatar. There's a running joke about many Second Life residents wanting to be above average in height to the point in reality they'd be seven foot tall basketball players. Some take things a little more, going for eight or nine feet. But this guy was the size of a mountain, even crouched down, towering over the Ivory Tower of Primitives. He was well over a hundred meters in height.

His name was Fop (Kingforri Resident). As it turned out, I'd seen him once before, at the celebration of the 20th anniversary of Natoma's "The Man" statue. But before I could message him, he was gone.

Such avatars are impressive, but highly impractical. Without chat extenders, you can't talk to anyone. You can't really interact with anyone. So most likely Fop only appears like this once in a while. So outside the Fantasy Faire, it's rare you'll encounter a mega-macro avatar like this.

Bixyl Shuftan

Cartoon of The Day: Big Snake

 

Taken at the Second Life Book Club. Someone had a huuuuuuge snake avie that was brought out when the show was winding down. Most snakes don't care that much for people, but apparently this one was an exception.

By Bixyl Shuftan
 

Cartoon of the Day: Big Blue

 

Taken at the Happy Vixen, Skylark "Snowbuns" Lefavre demonstrates a huge blue fox avatar. 

By Bixyl Shuftan

 

Standing Tall At "Conception"

 

Taken at Burn2 Conception. This particular Burn2 spinoff event was noted for "The Man" built as a female shape. But it wasn't the only lady standing tall. Builder Andrea Jones appeared in a Colussus avatar, towering over everyone else at the art and music festival. 

And no, the DJ didn't play "Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman."

Bixyl Shuftan
 

Announcement: This Saturday at The Science Circle - "Travel to the Time of Titanoboa"

 

"Travel to The Time of Titanboa"

Saturday June 5

10:00 AM to 11:30 AM SL time

The Science Behind Titanoboa

Dr. Alex Hastings will lead part of the tour discussing the world of Titanoboa, 60 million years ago. How and why was the snake so big? What else lived in those murky waters?  Plus he’ll share what it was like finding Titanoboa fossils in the Cerrejon coal mine.

Linda Kelley’s Ecosystem

Linda will talk a little about what it takes to bring fossils to life and particularly building an ecosystem from what is shown and not shown in the fossil records. For her this entailed doing a lot of literature review and sussing out how all these things could plausibly fit together.  In addition to the fauna that shared space with the Titanoboa, and the kinds of flora,  this included reading about geologic changes during that period and estimates of Paleocene weather.

Creating an Animated Animesh Titanoboa for Second Life

Dr. Greg Bollella will discuss the process for creating, texturing, rigging, and animating an animesh object for Second Life. Most of the presentation will be an overview of the processes with more detail for a few very interesting techniques and observations. The workflow and tool-chain are important and will be presented. The tools used were, ZBrush, Maya, Photoshop, Substance Painter, and Substance Designer.  Of particular interest is that no images were used in creating the textures for Titanoboa, only math!

Note: Wear boots. We are going to venture into murky waters.

For more information: Click Here.
  

Giant House at Oxygen

Most longtime residents whom have been around for over a decade remember the "Greenies" sim. The place was only two rooms, but was built at such a huge scale that normal-sized avatars looked mouselike in comparison, with small green aliens around the place in whimsical situations. Sadly in 2010, the sim was closed. Recently, there was a location that gave residents a similar experience, Oxygen owned by Justice Vought at the River sim. Gemma Cleanslate recently went there, and had a look around.

Read Gemma's article in Places.

Reader Submitted: "Attack of the Giant Woman" At The SL Newser SL16B Exhibit

From Treminari Huet. King Kong may be enormous. But as part of the scale model of the SL Newser's SL16B Exhibit, not so big compared to a regular avatar. So Treminari decided to try and one-up Kong. And then came a girl on a Colossus avatar who could make the "Fifty Foot Woman" look small.

Watch those flag Ma'am ... okay, you can step on the North Korean and Iranian ones.

Cartoon of the Day

Taken at the Happy Vixen. Where Little Spirit Raccoon and JB Raccoon got these "bodyguards," who knows. But one wonders how they struck a deal.

By Bixyl Shuftan

"Livin' Large" at Club Cutlass

 At Club Cutlass last Saturday, things got a bit on the giant side as DJ Geerkil, whom is in his dragon avatar almost all the time, was joined by a few of his wyrm friends. Plus Becky Shamen switched to a Colossus avatar.

I didn't hear any "Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman" jokes. Though as she was wearing shorts, none of the guys got a chance to upskirt her.

Bixyl Shuftan

Cartoon of the Day: Return of the Cowgirl

Remember the cartoon on October 3? I couldn't help but wonder if there was a better punch line than the one I used. After bringing up the picture in Sunweaver chat, Raschid Marenwolf helped me find a better one.

Bixyl Shuftan

Caption This

Remember the cartoon two days ago? I couldn't help but wonder if I could have made a better punch line. So here's your chance. What lines of dialogue would you use?

Cartoon of the Day

Taken at the Happy Vixen. Yep, that's a fifteen foot anthro bovine avatar on the floor. Hopefully after she recovers from her fall, she won't see her dancing partner like a red cape.

By Bixyl Shuftan

Cartoon of the Day

Taken at the Happy Vixen. Looks like CC found a way to make her bunny avatar really big. Which might make some in fox avatars feel a little uneasy.

By Bixyl Shuftan

Two Giant Places. Happiness Giant Rooms and Simpsons Giant Kitchen

For fans of the classic "Greenies Home" which gave players a mouse-sized perspective of a sim-sized family room and kitchen, there are a couple builds the Newser recently found out about which give visitors a similar point of view. One is a double set of giant rooms in the Happiness sim, one taking a little effort to find. The other in Athen Shire is a tribute to "The Simpsons," with a huge build of their kitchen. Unfortunately, word has it the second build won't be around for very long.

Read more in Places.