Starr-ving Artist

Mavericks Fan For Life

2007-07-05T09:22:00.001-06:00

I am now working some for the Electric Sheep. I am a greeter at the NBA Orientation Island. Here is a picture of me in my Mavericks jersey and a cheer leading skirt I made. My dad and I go to at least 4 or 5 Mavericks game a year. He says I spend most of my time checking out the crowd instead of watching the game, but, I love the Mavs games.

She's Back - Tanned, Rested and Ready to Go

2007-05-19T05:55:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone. Dixie Starr's real life avatar is back from her 3 week Mediterranean Vacation. Just like Paris and Nicky Hilton, Mary Kate and Ashley Olson, or Jessica and Ashley Simpson it was time for a celebrity, star studded trip to the Riviera, Costa del Sol and Tuscany for Dixie and her sister. Well sort of anyway. My sister and I were lucky enough to be invited by our parents to tour Portugal, Spain, France , Monte Carlo and Italy on a family vacation. The trip was a cross between Audery Hepburn's Summertime and Chevy Chase's European Vacation.

The first thing is that my sister and I did get a lot of sun and fun in, as well as, a lot of sight seeing with the Mom and Dad. Sis and I explored the south of France on a scooter and soaked up the rays in Nice, Cannes and Barcelona. We were in Cannes for the opening weekend of the Film Festival though I have no star sightings to report. I visited a lot of art museums (what a surprise). I was specially taken by the Modern Art Museum in Barcelona. We bought a lot of art from street artists. I feel the best way to get a feel for an area is not take the sponsored tour's (although we did take a lot with our parents), but, instead talk to the street artists and ask what to see and where to go. We saw Michelangelo's David at Academia, I am still stunned by it. It was amazing.

Rather, than give a blow by blow account, I thought I would just post a few pictures in the blog to let everybody know what a tough life I live in real life :) Dixie is back in Second Life, tanned, rested and already missing Med.

Scooting around Europe.

I actually made money gambling. Big jackpot on this machine in Monte Carlo.

Dressed for dinner with my sister having happy hour.

Sunset on the Med.

It was basically an Art Trip for me.

My Dad at Pisa. I couldn't get him to pose like he was holding up the tower :(

The Roman Forum.

Wonderful sculpture at the Cathedral in Barcelona.

Mom at the Colosseum.

At St. Peter's Square and the Vatican.

Challenge #13 - Revealing ....

2007-04-05T18:38:00.000-06:00

As usual I am late and don't get at things until near the end of the week. This weeks challenge #13 was posted, courtesy of Vint Falken. I have read both Dolmere and Mera's postings, so hear goes.

What big secret does nobody know about my Second Life? Well as you all know, I am always willing to share my thoughts about me and what I am doing. In fact, I often wonder if my blogs were the inspiration for Dol's idea of having a Not-a-Me-Me Blog. The biggest thing I think I have to reveal is that I maybe a little too much of a social gadfly. I find myself jumping between the Shelter, Bali Hai, Paradise, Mystery, the Art Community, SLNN staff and on and on it goes. I am so damn needy it is sickening. So, pleeeeaaassseeee be my friend :) I am sure there is a social disease associated with this, but, I don't know it's name.

The biggest secret I have in real life, is well, brace yourself....... I am in love. It is fairly recent and has happened very quickly. His name is Sean. He is the Golf Pro I have told some of you about. I have known him for over a year, but, have been dating for less than 6 months (I know it is fast). He has been in Second Life, found it boring, but he wasn't like my former boyfriend who hated it. He actually works late at the club on weeknights (past 10), but, is free on weekend nights, so that is why you hardly ever see me on weekend nights. If he asks me, I think I will say yes, but, I would like to keep my last name Starr in Second Life. And yes that is pink in my hair....

Not A Me Me #11 - Voice and Second Life

2007-03-25T08:10:00.000-06:00

My turn again. Everybody who knows me has heard by now about my being lucky enough to win the radio promo contest for Relay for Life. Many of you have heard the promos over the Melodies 2 Memories (M2M) Jukebox network of Dolmere's. The fact that my voice will soon be plastered throughout Second Life in these radio spots along with the fact that Oz Spade is a semi-regular Shelter visitor got me to thinking about the voice coming to Second Life. Will I like it or will I hate it? Will I use it or will I not? So that is the topic de jour for this Not A Me Me Challenge. How will voice effect Second Life and will you use it?

I think voice in Second Life will at least at first be a major distraction and very annoying. Most events I go to now if there is anymore than one or two active people is full of multiple conversations going on at the same time in the chat window. How can that work when people are talking? Talking versus chatting in a chat window are inherently two different types of communication. While I often jump in with a random remark in the chat window, I would not be comfortable interrupting people that are talking.

Also how do you know who is saying what with the new voice chat? I understand the spatial 3D kind of hype they are talking about, but, I just don't know. Another great tool for a griefer.... I wonder what W-hat already has planned? It just seems that the Linden's could be spending more time with other stuff like stability. I think voice is just one of those things that is more likely to ruin the experience than enhance it for me. Unfortunately, like most people I like to hear my voice. I can't shut up and as has been pointed out in more than one occasion in my life, don't think before I speak. The chat window has helped moderate that somewhat for me in Second Life (with the exception of the times I may have been consuming liquor while in world).

So, is Voice good for Second Life? My opinion is that is more of that Second Life expanding the boundaries of the Metaverse crap we have all suffered through on top of a pretty good game. So, it won't completely ruin the game, just be another irritation on top of the many others. It is a personal decision on whether you use it and quite frankly, I don't think it is a good option for me. So, it is best that I stay mute in terms of voice in Second Life. What do you think?

Not a Me Me Challenge # 10 Response

2007-03-23T20:32:00.000-06:00

This one comes from Rose Farina. Yaay, Rose for getting in the Blog Free For All. The Challenge is "Is Second Life like your Original Expectations or different"?

As Dol said in his response, it s a pretty challenging question. When I got in Second Life I thought it would much more like building web pages and the programming I do for a living. I thought I would explore all the builds, do a lot of building, script a lot cool things, write stuff like Mera and Dol have to connect SL and the web and really treat it like the facinating new metaverse that it was advertised to be. Instead for me, it has turned out to be like a much more interesting "mySpace".

I have made a lot of friends and gotten involved way more socially than I ever thought I would. Much to my suprise, it has become my Second Life. Do I sound like an add for Linden Labs? :) I go with friends to listen to music, I have art shows, I report on the art and entertainment scene for Second Life News Network, I am a Lovely Assistant doling out prizes on Trivial Obsession, I make and sell clothes, I am on a Relay for Life Team and on and on it goes. But, suprising enough none of it is the stuff that I had any intention of doing when I first got in.

So in many ways it has not been has not lived up to my expectations in being the metaverse of interesting new technology I thought it would be, but, has far exceeded my initial impressions in that it is FUN. Yes, there it is ..... Second Life is the most fun I have ever had playing a COMPUTER GAME. It is a game and I am not embarrased to say I like playing it!

To prove it is a fun game, I have included one my latest AVIS. It is Alice from my Dilbert series of characters I have done. Being Alice at a strip club ..... now that is what I call really living it up in the metaverse.

Not a Meme #9 - What has Second Life done for your Real Life

2007-03-23T20:13:00.000-06:00

I was late as usual on the Not-A-MeMes. Had a busy week. I will catch up on the blog posts in one blogathon evening. This is from Coal Nelson. It is What Second Life Done for your Real Life.

Like Mera's Response, I am going to blame something that may not be Second Life's fault, but, I would rather blame Second Life than blame my lack of control. I gained 12 pounds in Second Life from last Summer to the end of January! Now 12 pounds may not sound like the end of the world, but, when that represents 10% of your body weight it is HORRIBLE.

I blame SL for all that sitting in front of the computer. I may be dancing at the Shelter, but, I am eating Cookies and Cream Ice Cream in front of the monitor. I have gone from a normal, relatively active young person, to a full fledged SLUG as evidenced by a recent picture of me painting that I have enclosed in the blog.

Actually, things have not completely gone to pot. In February, my sister and I started a diet together. Also, I started jogging again which also helps me mentally as well as physically. As of this week, I had lost 7 of those 12 pounds. So at this point I can only blame roughly a 5 pound fiasco on Second Life. Do you know what 5 pounds of fat looks like in a butcher store ..... Ewwww, it is not a pretty site there or on a little Texan gal.

Not a Me Me # 7 - Somewhere New

2007-03-17T10:39:00.000-06:00

Mera challenged us to go somewhere new and blog about it. Great idea. I took the opportunity to go visit an artist friend of mine, Amythe Moonlight's sim. Amy has shown in a couple of my art shows and I was always fascinated by her 2D art that appears 3D and has moving prims and textures in them. She also is a builder who is most famous for her Christmas builds. So, I went and visited Love Harbor and Mystery to see the building that she and her partner, Ay6jay Carpenter have done.

The first thing you see when you hit the island is that is "Under Construction" and that is evidenced by the big crane in this otherwise rural English countryside. I have talked to Amy on a number of occasions and I know that she actually lives in Great Britain very near Stonehenge, so I was not suprised by the traditional English gardens and the Stonehenge monument in the distance.

The main portion of the sim is dominated by the Castle which has an animated dragon guarding it. The castle was still being finished up when I visited but peeking in the door you could see a beautiful statue that Amy had done.

From the castle, I went over to look at the Cafe that looks to be a place that will be a popular gathering spot in Mystery. Looking in the front door, from the beautiful patio you can see some of her art and her toy pig. Walking in the cafe, I noticed a hole in the floor with a ladder. So, of course, I went exploring.

The ladder led to a basement which had a glass wall that looked out into the Sea. The view into the Sea included schooling fish and a former civilization's ruins. Had I found the fabled Atlantis :) What a great imagination and considerable amount of talent Amy and Ay6jay have.

I left the Cafe and wandered over to the traditional English Square that had a Pub called the Red Bull which I found to be a great name. To think that there is a pub named after the drink that makes it possible for me to make it through most mornings.

Looking north in the square you can see the main house. So, I took a stroll up there to take a look. I took a peek into the library through the window and decided I had to explore.

Amy's attention to detail is amazing. The living room, dining room, bedrooms and libraries were all looking great. I could almost smell the heather in the air.

Lastly, I went and visited the actual Love Harbor itself. It is a club that is an old fashioned Paddle Boat. I noticed that there was a planned St Patrick's day party, so, I showed up and danced with the Mystery group. They were a great crowd and I really enjoyed myself.

Thanks for the Challenge. It really turned out to be a lot of fun!

2007-03-07T20:06:00.000-06:00

Jacek has posted the next challenge, Do you consider your avatar an extension of yourself, or a character you can control?

I have found the postings by Dolmere, Mera and Jacek's perspective very, very interesting. Most of you know what I was going to say about that, as you know that I have no problem mixing my real and second life personalities, as evidenced by my SL Profile. But, in terms of "Do you consider your avi an extension of yourself" - for me a picture says 1,000 words!

Not A-MeMe #5 - Helpful Hint

2007-03-03T10:33:00.000-06:00

Dolmere posted up the not-a-meme challenge #5 for a how to do something in Second Life article to help newbies. To think I now have been in Second Life long enough to be able to post a newbie tip is something to be said about persitance and not about how quickly I have picked up Second Life platform. In general, I figure that for everything I do in Second Life there probably is a better way to do it than I know how. So with some trepidition I will post a "tip" expecting that any comments I get on the tip will probably turn out to be people telling me, "You know there is a better way to do that" rather than thanks from a newbie. Anyway here goes:

Newbie Tip: How to sell something in Second Life.

Most people when they get in Second Life, do some clubbing, go listen to music, go at least "window shopping" and then come to the conclusion, I need to sell something. It must be human nature. I know for me it helped justify in my own mind the hours I was spending in Second Life. I was going to make money in SL(haha). In any case, let's say Nancy Newbie, has decided to create an object to sell. Nancy has created a new hat to be worn at parties called the box head hat. She knows that people will flock to buy the box head hat because she has seen many other newbies wearing boxes on their arms, legs, feet, etc.

So, first she first creates a new primitive. She chooses to use the box primitive to create the box head hat. After further deliberation, she decides that she has always liked the look of natural wood, so, does not bother to change the texture or the default color of the box. Nancy places the box on her head and adjusts it to make sure it is what she was really thinking of and after a few minutes of arranging it she has it just right and it is now ready for sale.

Nancy has gone shopping in Second Life and she is really fascinated with the vendors that show off the products and offer them for sale. She gets on SL Exchange and admires the JEVN vendor package, but, then is somewhat taken aback by the Two Grand price tag. She thinks I will have to sell a lot of box head hats to hit my "break even" point. Nancy was a business major in college, when not being the most popular TKE Little Sister at the Frat House, and she knows all about things like breaking even, diminishing returns and market penetration. Fear not, Nancy, there is an easier way to sell that box head hat than these high dollar vendors.

Second Life provides the ability to create objects and then set permissions to share this with others. In this permission scheme is a native ability to sell the object. You basically are setting the object to be able to be taken or copied by another resident as long as they pay you a certain price for the object. This is done on the General Tab of the Object itself. You click the For Sale check box and set it to the price you would like to sell it for. In this example, Nancy Newbie set the price to be 1000 L$, so, that she can get enough capital to get one of those fancier vendors.

You have three choices in how to sell the object. The first is original. When you choose original that means after the buyer has paid for the item it will go in their inventory and disappear from where you are selling it from (i.e. the store). The second option is to sell a copy of the item which means that the items goes into their inventory but there is still the object in the store. These two are pretty straight forward. If you want to sell original, numbered art pieces for example you would sell originals and set the permissions so the next owner can sell it or modify it, but not copy. If you wanted to sell the item, such as a fabulous box head hat in a store, you might put the hat on a table with a for sale sign next to it and set it to sell a copy of itself.

The last option is to sell the contents. Let's say Nancy has made a beautiful dress. She want to get a picture of herself in the dress and put the picture on the wall. Nancy would like buyers to be able to touch the picture on the wall and be able to buy the dress. That is what contents option is for. She takes her picture using the Take Snapshot option underneath the File Menu and then she uploaded the image using the Upload Image option underneath the File Menu. She then created a object and shaped like a picture to hang on a wall and selected the picture of her in the dress as it's texture. Nancy opened this picture of the dress and went to the contents tab and dragged and dropped the dress from her inventory into the contents.

Nancy now has a picture of her wearing that great looking outfit with the dress itself in the contents of the picture. She goes to the General section of the picture (not the dress) and selects For Sale and Contents and sets the price to be 2000 L$. Nancy is thinking big. She needs to remember to set the dress permissions to be what she wants, for example, modify and not copy.

I hope this guide to Simple Selling helps all the Nancy Newbies of the world because we all know there is a shortage of aspiring Fashion Designers in Second Life :)

Official Response to the Unofficial Not-A-MeMe

2007-02-25T09:19:00.000-06:00

Dolmere Talamasca has issued the Not-A-MeMe challenge this week. Based on a Second Life Insider article, he asks the question, "Let's pretend I'm rich. I'm going to give you a sim. The only thing is, you must use that sims resources to build one (or more) statues of great figures and/or events in Second Life's history."

This is a tough one. Being still an SL Rookie in her first year, I have many personal heroes that I have met that I am tempted to mention as potential statue honorees. But, since the question is framed around "great figures or events in SL history", much as I would like to list all the fantastic builders, artists, scripters and organizers I have happened across in the last year, I have decided to talk about an event that has had a great deal of impact on SL. I would build a statue to Relay for Life.

This event gives people playing a game a real chance to make a difference in a person's life. Over 1000 residents participated and raised over 40K USD for the American Cancer Society. Beyond this, the event has provided a palette for some of Second Life's most talented individuals who put in uncounted hours building and organizing events. This year should be no different! I would build a statue park with a giant cancer awareness ribbon surrounded by statues of Aimee Weber, Jade Lily, Timeless Prototype, Fayadrina Foley, Iumi Cline, Catherine Omega ........

Kudos to all and let's have a great 2007 SLRFL!

The Shelter Cares - A Relay for Life Team at the Shelter

2007-02-19T18:52:00.000-06:00

I have posted the following in the Shelter forums, but, for those of you who may be reading my blog instead of the forums, I thought I would repost it.

As some of you know, I am trying to form a Relay for Life Team from the Shelter. I was not in Second Life in time last year to participate in this event, but, the Relay for Life is an important part of my Real Life. My mother is a cancer survivor of 8 years now, so, I am indebted to everyone that has made an effort to fight cancer. I was away at college when my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent treatment, so, I guess I have always felt I wasn't there enough for her....so things like Relay for Life help me feel like I am making an effort where I can.

In Real Life I am a Relay for Life participant. I participate now with a group from my work at the local track. I walk and jog for exercise and as you can probably guess by those who know my personality I am not shy in asking for help, so, I am proud for what little I can raise for the ACS and Relay for Life. So, this gets us to where I would like to ask you for your help.

I know the Shelter is full of energetic, caring and creative people that could do a great deal in raising money for cancer research and care programs. Because of this, I am asking for your help in this year's "Quest For A Cure" Second Life event in Relay for Life by asking you to join the "The Shelter Cares" - Relay for Life Team.

Besides, the main Relay for Life event in which we will walk through the many sims that have been set aside for the relay, there is a great opportunity for staging some Shelter Events that could be used as fund raising events. I can think of no other group of people that have more talent in doing this type of thing in terms of creative energy than the group that I have gotten the pleasure to get acquainted with at the Shelter. You guys Rock!

Though Reina is tied up in Real Life for a few weeks, she has offered to help as the co-captain of Team Shelter. I also need help from some of you better organized Shelter planners. As you know, planning and consistency are not exactly Dixie's strengths. I have bursts of creative energy, but, can fail in so many other ways. So, I really do need all the help I can get.

The Shelter Cares. Please IM me to get involved.

Check out the http://slrfl.org/ for more details.

My Friends are Video Rock Stars

2007-02-18T19:47:00.000-06:00

My friends over at Bali Hai, the Merry Idiots are now rock stars. Aenea Nori has made a machina video. You can see it on her blog or on Google Video. The Merry Idiots loved being Video Rock Stars. I just hope next time they invite me :)

Challenge #4 - Not-A-MeMe - SL Circa 2009

2007-02-16T20:33:00.000-06:00

I would like to post the Not-A-MeMe challenge #4 blog. I have always wanted to use the phrase prolific prognosticator and pugnacious pundit so here goes. Dixie Starr, Second Life's most prolific prognosticator and pugnacious pundit poses the puzzler, "What will be Second Lifes biggest positive change and biggest negative change in two years (circa 2009)?"

My response:

Biggest Positive Change Prediction is that Second Life will have benefited from the overall Web 2.0 explosion because of their decision to open source the Client and Server. Second Life will have the ability to mash up with other web applications and technologies such as deep linking, friend networks for shared content, AJAX and other "function sharing", Google Services such as calendar, embedded SL Search, docs and spreadsheets. If you can get at it through the internet you will be able to integrate it within Second Life. The creative resident will have many more tools at their bidding to create a true metaverse.

Biggest Negative Change or Disappointment: I believe the Second Life has already started heading down the Gartner Technology Adoption Curve like the now well known article "Gartner says Second Life hype near peak" trumpeted earlier this year. And yes in 2009, the Linden's are no longer independent, they are owned by Google. This provides part of the big positive earlier stated, but, alas, "big brother" will make Second Life no longer the hobby playground it is for so many of us now. Google will attempt to pull back in the creativity that was released with the open source outlet that the Linden's relented to in 2007.

Bottom Line: I believe more positive than negative. Dixie Starr will still be in Second Life except she will be Dixie Starr Incorporated a wholely owned subsidiary of the Shelter Coroporation.

Challenge #3 Response - Have You Burned Out on SL

2007-02-15T18:23:00.000-06:00

This is hard to be a not-a-meme post. So, I will do an answer from my perspective about my already fairly well documented SLuicide attempt around Thanksgiving. Though not burn out, closely related. I gave everything I own and my money to Eugena and our group account and cancelled my account . I completely swore off SL. I deleted everything on my hard drive, client, folders with fashion, etc. Everything associated with SL was gone. Even went as far as deleting bookmarks in Firefox. It was truly SLuicide.

Why did I do that? Was I overextended like some of the other bloggers noted? Though, I was doing my art and a little fashion this wasn't the reason. Was it that I ran out of things to do and was bored? Nope, I loved all the things going on; game shows, artist talk, fashion design, partying. Was it the people in SL? Not hardly, as far as I know I haven't made any enemies and I have no one even on mute. I really enjoy the people I have met in SL. So, why did I do such a drastic thing? The reason was alluded to by some of the other bloggers. It was GUILT!

I was guilty that I was ignoring my First Life. I had just had a group of fights with my boyfriend of nearly two years about Second Life. He was complaining that I was spending too much time in Second Life. That I was addicted. I wasn't paying attention to him. So in a despair, I committed SLuicide. However, turns out, the problem was not Second Life. It was the boyfriend. Boyfriend became history by Christmas and I got back in Second Life and I have a new boyfriend who isn't quite as selfish. Luckily, I had a 3 month account and the Lindens were able to reinstate me. I had lost a lot of other stuff locally on my PC, but, no big deal and best of all Eugena forgave me and is still my business partner and best friend in SL.

This brings me to the conclusion of the not-a-meme. Is it burn out or is it guilt that drives some of us away from this game called Second Life? Will we ever treat Second Life as just a part of life or are we too set in our nose-to-the-grindstone, all work no play, society? I worry a little about the guilt thing going forward, but, like the bloggers have said, sometimes you just need to take a little time off.

Tell us what you like most about Second Life. Not-a-meme

2007-02-07T19:25:00.000-06:00

Mera Pixel Not-a-MeMe Challenge

Dolmere Talamasca Not-a-MeMe Response

The Not-a-Meme challenge is "What do you like most about Second Life". To add to the challenge, I had promised that in my next blog I would make an attempt not to mention the first, second or third person that is writing the blog in it. Indeed a formidable challenge. But, after spending 10 minutes trying to do that neat little linguistic challenge I said forget it and rewrote the following because I realized my favorite thing about Second Life turns out to be "that Second Life for me is an unabashed, no excuses chance to celebrate the person that is ME!"

Before you go and think, oh brother here is Dixie again trying to be a "smarty pants", let me explain what I mean. When I first came across Second Life it appeared that it would be a great place for maybe doing some creative programming. I had been doing some Java based websites in my evenings and thought this would be just another interesting programming experience. I still have a "How Second Life Works" word document that I created the first two weeks in Second Life where I built a structured outline of all the things I needed to learn in order to become a proficient developer within this thing called Second Life. I look at that now and think, "Wow are you weird!"

Here is an excerpt from this embarrassing document:

A class is typed. A class can be made up of multiple classes and therefore multiple types (simple vs complex class)
Types in LSL = Integer, Float, String, Key, Vector, Rotation
An object has a class associated with it
An instance is the actual usage of a class
Each class (i.e. type or collection of types) can have a variable associated with it
Each instance has states which are represented by the values of its’ instance variables
Each state has event handlers. A state must have at least one event handler otherwise it isn’t a state. Each event handler is triggered by the LSL Virtual Machine. The event handler is how the LSL VM (i.e. sim) passes data to the instance
There is a whole set of states an object has coming out of the box.

Stuff like the above goes on for about five pages of technobabble and drivel. Then one night I had a break through. I decided to stay home and drink a bottle of wine and got into Second Life. I figured since I was "In Vino", so to speak, to not open the Technobabble document and document how SL must work and just wander around to get a feel for the content. That is the night I came across the Shelter. I stumbled into a game of Payment Podium. I had so much fun playing trivia, talking with the people and then dancing until I passed out that the "Understanding Second Life and LSL document" has lain fallow since.

Instead I decided to treat it like the game it is. It is the game, that truly celebrates the ME! It especially frees the "Creative Me". Who would have thought that it would unleash the fashion designer lurking inside or really get me excited about doing abstract art again. I now get on my computer and I am way more likely to pick my graphix tablet and paint something or design a new dress than I am to do anything resembling coding. I leave the programming at the office now. The computer has become a great new toy for me. I had never been a big game player beyond Bedazzled and some Solitaire. Now the computer is the best, coolest toy I can possibly imagine. At 26, I am a kid again!

That is what is best about Second Life for ME! It is Me Unleashed! It is about the creative Me in all of us being unleashed.

Weekly Challenge - Where To Send Newbies

2007-02-05T18:06:00.000-06:00

Dolmere Talamasca has posed the intersting approach to having blogs about things instead of about ME - ME - ME. As you all know, talking about Me is always a lot of fun, especially for Me. But, I really like Dol's suggestion of having challenge subjects to blog about it, so, we all don't get tired of hearing about Me Me. So, I am going to throw caution to the wind and talk about something besides Je, Ich, Mim and Yo.

Two places to take newbies to get them started, hmmmmm? I know what you are all thinking and "No, I wouldn't send them to my store or gallery". Though I usually do give them some clothes and talk to them about SL fashion sense. Meeting Dixie in SL, is sort of like being on the TV Show, "What Not To Wear"! Feed the hungry and clothe the newbie is my slogan.

I usually first ask them how they found out about SL and what they think they would like to do in exploring the meta-verse. That often shapes what I would suggest for places to visit with them. Lately, with all the new residents from around the world, the newbie is apt to no speak English or at least it is a second language. If that is the case I take them to McDunnough's. Jed and Faye go out of their way to ease the transition of non-English speakers. With Salsa nights and people on the staff that talk Spanish, Portugese, French and German. IshtarAngel also runs an immigration agency at McDunnough's to help acclimate the international newbie. There are usually a lot of music events, Salsa dancing and plenty of places to shop there as well.

Again, it is hard to say where I would go with them next. Muse Isle, NCI, DarkLife, and Artropolis are where I would go with them if they specifically expressed interest in music, scripting, game playing or art. Otherwise, I take them to the Shelter. I know we all would like to say we take them elsewhere. But, honestly there just is no better place to go, if you are a newbie. I know it seems like a cop out for this blog as we all know the Shelter is the best place for newbies. But, I just want to go on the Blog record and say, that the people that have made the Shelter the experience it is deserve all the credit in the world for making Second Life fun and easy to get around in. I have been in SL for over 6 months now and I still ask a newbie question to Sumar or Oni at least one week.

Wow, two paragraphs and no use of the word "Me", but, 11 uses of the word "I". Hmmm, even though I have the best of intentions, I am afraid I may be a "Me" addict. The next challenge I take will be to specifically write a blog that has no mention of me in the first, second or third person.

Free At Last - I Love My New Graphix Tablet

2007-01-29T16:46:00.000-06:00

I got a new graphix tablet. Goodbye Mr. Mouse, nice knowing you.

I am in love with my new Wacom Intuos 3 Graphics tablet. Got some new painting software too. So, I have been off exploring what I can do in the world of digital art versus what I can do on a canvas. Great, great fun. Did I mention I love it!

Lately, I have been doing portraits in SL. Kind of strange, take a snapshot of a character that all ready is an image and use it for reference for painting. Art imitates life, in this case Second Life, I guess. So, here are some of my current portraits.

Me hard at work in my workshop, which is on the third floor of Eugena and my Gallery in Clear. I have a picture of Eugena, a self portrait, a picture of Chaos in front of a Madelbrot Set and the picture of me with some of my real life art.

Birthday painting of Ms. Reina. Reina is my adopted sister from my "Shelter Family". This is an acrylic, painted with a big brush and broad primitive strokes. Sort of like Rei! :)

This is a Rez Day picture of my friend Bethany Heart. Beth is my party sister and the leader of the Merry Idiots "family" that I love to hang with. I used finer acrylic brushes and a camel hair oil brush on this painting.

This is my concert going sister Elizabeth Antonelli whom I met originally while living with the "McDunnough Family" in SL. You see Liz at many of the live concerts and she has been a great supporter and helper in Second Life.

This is my evil Step Daddy in Second Life, Filthy Fluno. Filthy is probably the most famous artist in Second Life and now oversees the Artropolis Sim. Filthy has taken me under his wing, so to speak and let's me know when I am creating Crap instead of Art. :) This picture of Filthy as a Viking Warrior was my first commission in SL!

Speaking of Dads, my real life Dad was over to my sister and my new house we are renting a couple of weeks ago and commented that we were wandering around like a couple of Zombies (mostly he was commenting on our tired, listless appearance due to a little too much partying the night before). In any case, being a good daughter I painted him this painting of his two "Zombie Daughters". What a great kid I am!

And lastly, I made another animated TGA. I made a number of these for SL "best friends" for Christmas, like, Reina/Pati, Jacek/Roe, Roy/Karen, etc. This one was for Chaos. It transitions from the Mandelbrot Set to an oil painting I did of him. I looked at the Mandelbrot Set and said, "Hey that looks like a penguin's profile." It inspired this work. I also did some new sails for Chaos's sailboat. We went sailing which is always way cool, even though this time I was lost at sea. I felt like Rose from Titanic.

Thanks for looking at the art!

Ciao for Now.

Welcome Home

2007-01-22T12:11:00.000-06:00

Those of you who were at the Trivial Obsession last week probably know that I was unaware that the Shelter had a slogan. It is Welcome Home. While being a little embarrased about my lack of paying attention over this last few months, I found out I was not the only one lacking this important information. Why didn't I know that? Which leads to the subject of the blog: branding.

One of the things I have noticed is that in Second Life, like with all things media related, you tend to remember things that are branded. In other words you remember people and places that have spent time developing an identity through some type of trademark. So, what kind of branding works?

Well, colors obviously appear to work. When I say "Green", you think of a certain person. If it is "Purple", you narrow it down to two people. Another thing is Avis stand out. A Skeleton, Penguin, Frogg, Elephant and Puppy instantly brings five people to mind.

So what is your trademark, your brand, your handle? My logo for my clothes is my Flying Star, unfortunately easily forgetable. I am the Starr-ving Artist for my Paintings. Which again unfortunately is not just a trademark, it is the sad truth as well. :)

Now back to Welcome Home, the Shelter slogan. Would it be more memorable if it was something more like "The Puppy Pad" or "So Simple A Caveman Could Visit Here?". Or should have I just been more aware. That probably goes without saying.

Ciao for Now.

The Singer Sewing Machine

2007-01-14T19:18:00.000-06:00

So, as everyone probably knows, I spend quite a bit of time creating clothes based on my paintings. I have been lucky enough to have Eugena Elvehjem as a Business Partner and her keen photographer's eye has led to really showing our clothes off nicely in our stores. But, as you would expect, Dixie is lazy. So, I thought, I will build a sewing machine to help make my flex skirts. Sounds easy, huh. Not for the girl who mostly spent Geometry and Trig class flirting with Don Schilter, the dreamey drummer in the "Soon They Thought They Would Be Famous" high school, grunge band. So, on with the story.

I figured, it couldn't be too hard, I mean the Jacquard Loom was built 200 years ago. Without the help of modern computers. So, now that I have built the Sewing machine, I have a greater respect for that Jacquard dude! As you can see I started by building a replica of my Great Grandmothers Singer Sewing Machine. It has been handed down to my Mom, so, I played with it growing up. The "Big Red Button" and the model above the machine are my modern attachments for Second Life.

The heart of Sewing Machine is my script that creates flex dresses. It works from patterns that you create in notecards that control placement of the dress panels that make up the skirt. I chose this approach, so that once the Sewing Machine was done, I could just swap out patterns for new dresses. I have already created 4 patterns. You also place a dress panel (flexible prim) you want to create a dress from and start sewing from the dialog box that comes up when you click on the "Big Red Button".

It starts placing the dress panels around the guide that is floating above the Singer Sewing Machine. This guide is the perfect size for my hips and my still pert derriere. You can easily create a guide for any body size. Someday I may even trying automating that.

Anyway, the script corrects for the hip and butt flare by actually doing some geometry calculations (I knew those Sines and Cosines would come in handy some day). These caculations tilt the panels and lengthen them to keep a consistent hemline. Old Miss Dohse my Geometry Teacher would have been proud. Also, there is a lot of communication going on between objects rezzing and the sewing machine that allow the skirt to link itself during the sewing.

When it finishes, the dress detatches itself from the sewing machine and floats a meter above the sewing machine. You then apply your textures and colors. I usually use my painting textures as my basic input and them play a lot with the rotation and repeats of the texture on the prims. Since they are linked they apply consistenly across the whole skirt.

And the result is this Picasso Skirt that I am wearing with one of my new bustiers that I have created. It also has a small jacket and a scarf for more dressy occasions. You can create any kind of skirt with this new Singer Sewing Machine. I wonder what Great Grandma Flo would have thought of her Great Granddaughter creating virtual clothes using a virtual sewing maching based on the Singer. Now I just need to find a sound effect for that old Singer sound of the pedals going back and forth and the bobbin going up and down.

Yes, it was a pretty weird way to spend my weekend. But, hey, I was iced in :)

Ciao for now!

Dixie "Jacquard" Starr

Packaderm Panic in Exile

2007-01-08T21:43:00.000-06:00

It was a quiet night in Exile. We had just finished a very creative and somewhat subdued Building Shelter Competition hosted very aptly by Coal Nelson. While relaxing after the competition, a number of the Shelter in Exile regulars were comparing notes on whose builds were favorite, who had the best looking clothes, who was to stand whose head, you know the regular Exile Exhale that follows most Game Shows at the Shelter. Then to everyone's suprise......

The normally mild mannered and well behaved Salvador (Sal) Dalgleish slunked away to the corner of the front porch and much to everyone's suprise, horror and shock changed into a Behemoth Bull Elephant. The Powerful Packderm would morph from color to color which insighted a panic that quickly overtook the normally composed, cool and cosmopolitan Exile crowd. Normally, we sheltered expect to be, well you know, sheltered from the terror that sometimes SL can become. But, not on this night. Salasaurus stomped around the porch sending the crowd scurrying to avoid his oversized elephantine feet.

The Sallazilla often would change the color of his rough hide to shocking colors of pink, purple and dare we say even rainbow displays to send tremors through the assembled humanity (avitaranity). He even showed his every growning power by changing his whole body into lightning, fire and even chain mail armor that stunned the huddling masses into quivering lumps of pixelated panic. Oh, won't any brave souls save us? Is all hope lost?

A couple of the bravest and quickest thinking Exhilians leapt into action. Reina Quine took it upon herself to launch a sneaky and unfortunately unsuccessful "rear" attack on the Salgantic Monster. Her ill fated attack, while quite "cheeky" only ended in failure as Sal proved impossible to her rather "anal"ytic "ass"ult. Poor Reina was lucky to escape, still purple, if not a little black and blue.

Next, Wgasa Nabob jumped into the fray. Wgasa cleverly turned himself into a mouse and tried to use the tried and true, well know fear that elephants have of mice. Again, although he repeatedly ran around squeaking it only went to prove that like so many of the things we think we know for sure, the mouse effect on elephants' was alas only another urban myth (maybe a jungle myth come to think of it). But, again we must applaud Wgasa for his bravery in face of such adversity.

The crowd was forced to call Salenstien names, such as, "Yellow", "Periwinkle" and even "Paisley" in an attempt to make him stop in fear of us really getting verbally abusive. But, as all things go in SL. The Sal attack soon was over, as we think that we tired him out having to listen to the well intentioned, yet, unruly riot that is known as the Shelter in Exile Regulars comment on his creativity, his clevernous and his patience.

Yes, Sal, you are favorite plaything in SL! :)

New Years Resolutions

2006-12-31T19:35:00.000-06:00

Well, I am home from the road trip and back home again in SL. I caught up on my music on New Year's Eve by going and hearing Mel, Cylindrian, Frogg and Jaycatt before going out in RL. Rosa, brought a robot animation that was all the rave. See the picture of all of us doing the Robot Racoon Revival to Frogg and Jay. Now, before going off to the usual drunken, debauchery, my real life has generally become, I thought I would write down some Second Life Resolutions:

1) I will not drink to excess in Second Life and invite friends to talk to me about my great new ideas I have when I have imbibed too much. Note: I will decide what excess is, not others...

2) I will make more tinies. I am afraid I have not embraced the smallness that is inside of me trying to break free.

3) I will wear more purple.

4) I will get one question this year in the mad typing scramble and not be forced to only score points when I am picked in Trivial Obsession.

5) I will not pun as much, instead I will learn dirty limmericks.

6) In order to make my RL Mother happy, I will paint a picture of something she recognizes.

7) I will seduce Philip Linden, come down with SLyphillis and coerce Philip into giving me an island to silence me.

8) I will get my seams straight on my dresses the first time instead of after Eugena 's Quality Control Check! I have a hard time with straight lines it is the curse of being an Abstract Artist.

9) I will to my best to truly kill the communication form know as Blogging.

10) I will try and be a more understanding, caring person in SL. I will actually talk about all the great friends I have in SL, instead of only talking about me, me, me!

Happy New Year Everyone!

Blogging for Dummies, the book Dixie should have bought

2006-12-29T14:20:00.000-06:00

Silly Me. No wonder not many people were commenting on my blog. I had it set so only registered bloggers could comment. So, I think it is fixed now. So, entertain me and comment on my blogs! I should have bought a Blogging for Dummies book. Or better yet hired a guide like the statue I am standing next too in the photo. This is a picture of me standing next to a Columbus statue on Liam Serf's new island where Eugena and I have opened a new store. I know many of you are thinking I am just standing there so I can look up his pantaloons, but, it isn't true. I am just trying to see if he can point out a new direction for me in SL. I need all the help I can get...

On The Road & I Wish I Was Home

2006-12-26T06:31:00.000-06:00

I am with my parents and my sister, Tori, visiting my grandparents in Green Valley, Arizona. Green Valley is a retirement community just south of Tuscon. It is a very nice, quiet retirement community. Just perfect for Tori and me, a couple of 20 something bon vivants. Ugggh, I love my parents and my grandparents, but, I am feeling a litle BORED. The big planned trip this week is to the Indian Casino just down the road.

Anyway, we had a very nice Christmas and I hope you all did too. Almost everyone got a painting from me. Lucky them! Tori and I bought my Mom a new puppy two weeks ago for her Christmas Gift. We got her a little Bichon Frise named Dulcimea. She is staying with my sister Betsie. Speaking of Betsie, she called us to tell us that she was preggers again. Wooo hooo. I already have a nephew that is hers that I babysit him on Saturdays. He loves flying in SL (he is 4). I am hoping for a niece.

But, enough about real life. I have managed to pull some pictures off my PC at home from my grandparents very spiffy Compaq museum quality computer and decided to try blogging. Second Life with this computer and dial up connection would be rather challenging, but, you can get to the internet and if I am patient maybe I can even finish this Blog.

The big Dixie news is that I have rented a condo. As you may know, I was renting a lovely little condo from Clutch Carson. I was right next to Clutch and Chaos. Clutch decided to sell and I got in one day with no home or explanation. I was suddenly a vagrant. But, as fate would have it, I just happened to be looking out from the front porch of Eugena and my store in Clear and realized that the same exact condo I had moved out of was across the street on the mountain side. The owner is a big land owner in SL and also the owner of a web hosting company. As you would expect from me, I got to know him pretty quickly and am in the midst of setting up a new, SL based website. More to come later.

The house has a lovely view especially if you are a meglomaniac like I am. This is the view from my front porch. You can see the art gallery and the fashion mall. I mean who wouldn't love living across from two giant signs for Dixie! I am now busy creating new furniture for the house. I decided this time to build my own furniture rather than buy it. I will post pictures when it is done or better yet throw a party! Unfortunately during the eviction I lost my funrniture and art. The Lindens stance is that is a problem between two residents and they won't get involved. I pointed out it was a problem with their software not returning my stuff to my lost and found. They said that couldn't happen. Uh huh, ya, right, sure. I asked all my artist friends I had bought from (I had about a dozen pieces I had bought) if they would replace the lost art and they all did. What a great a bunch!

The best part of the neighborhoold I now live in, is the neighbors. While I miss being next to Chaos and seeing his lovely little sailboat bobbing in the water next door, I now am within spitting distance of my super friend and business partner Eugena. Not that I would ever spit on Eugena!!! We can stand on our porches and signal to each other now. This is a picture of my house from Eugena's roof top. Come visit us sometime in Clear.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and I will be getting home this next weekend and I will be back in SL. Wish me luck at the Casino.

Organizing Artists Give Me A Break

2006-12-15T14:22:00.000-06:00

This week the Gallery Owners Group had their first meeting hosted by Sasun Steinbeck. Sasun does an admirable job trying to herd cats (i.e. get artists to work together). Inherently, most artists are well how should we put this, ummm, errr, uhhh, "unique". So the thought of an association of Artists working together in Second Life to further the acceptance and dare we say business side of art in SL is a challenge at best and a meltdown at worst.

The meeting started out well with Sasun identifying an outline of the subjects we were going to cover and setting a timetable for them. A very sane and rational approach. Unfortunately, the first question was, "What can we do grow art in SL". The 30 or so Art Gallery owners then all started typing at once. People jumped out of the chairs to be heard. Filthy Fluno jumped on the stage with his 4 foot afro and told everybody to touch his afro which handed out landmarks. Everybody then started handing out landmarks. Dixie of course then jumped in the fray and offered everybody membership in her Second Life United Galleries (SLUG) group. A very large dangerous looking Wolf creature wearing armor and carrying a mace offered to Slug me.

Sasun tried to restore order, then she either crashed or somehow was booted. Filthy took over and started letting all the other artists know what he thought of their pathetic attempts at getting art established in SL. People called each other names . A number of artists basically said, "Why can't we all be friends". One of the artists offered to take their clothes off. Another artist suggested that maybe the group was too big for this kind of discussion. I started making very bad jokes about Art Gallery Owners like, "How do you make a small fortune as a Art Gallery Owner in SL" >>> "Start with a very large fortune". One guy said I only make art for art's sake, which led to more ridicule. Then, Sasun logged back in and said "This has been a very good discussion. Has anybody been taking notes." Someone offered to cut the entire history of the debacle, I mean well attended and participative meeting, into a notecard. And so ended the first meeting of the Art Gallery Owners Association, otherwise to be known as, Dysfunctional Avatars Making Noise Art Gallery Owner Group (DAMN AGOG).

You intrepid art reporter,
Dixie Starr
"Starving Artist Quality at Premium Gallery Prices"

P.S. In reality, I took a little journalistic license in covering the meeting for entertainment value. The meeting went very well if being a little rambunctious. Sasun and Filthy did a great job and should get some kind of medal for doing this. Kudos. :)

The Day Blogging Died

2006-12-09T16:12:00.000-06:00

Today is the official end of blogging as we all know it. Dixie Starr has decided that the world cannot live without a Starr-ving Artist Blog. Around the globe, you can hear people canceling there blogging acounts. There is a rumor now, that the RSS standard for blogging will be revoked in order to prevent the Dixie Blog from taking effect in cyberspace. There is even fear in the International Business Community as millions, even billions of dollars will be put at risk due to the new Dixie Starr - Starr-ving Artist Blog. The fear is that Dixie's effect on the blogging community and the resulting changes to the RSS standard, and do we dare say it, even the TCP/IP protocal itself will have untold impacts to not only today's technology related markets, but, even have reprecussions to future generations. Or maybe I am taking this "butterfly effect" a little too seriously.

Hi, I am Dixie Starr a Second Life Resident and if you don't know me, shame on you! I have been in Second life almost 6 whole months now and despite an unsuccessful SLuicide attempt am donig well in SL. I think I will love this whole blogging thing, because as all of you that do know me already know, I love to talk about ME. That's right, Dixie did this, Dixie wants that, Dixie plans to do this, Dixie already has tried that, blah, blah, blah.

This past week I have been busy in SL cohosting a Second Life Art Show with Fayadrina Foley at McDunnoughs in Samoa. I have been active in the SL art community for the last 4 months. I have a Gallery in Clear. I have been doing Real Life art for a hobby for the last 10+ years. I am an abstract expressionist, geometric and primitive painter. I actually sell art in RL, as well as, SL as a sideline. But, enough about ME, ME, ME. My stuff was there and sold very well, thank you all that visited.

I have been lucky enough to meet a number of fantastic artists in Second Life and due to my persistance (I always bug people I admire), a number of them showed at that art show. The various people and groups showing were:

Roy Irwin - showed a number of VERY talented artists from his Gallery. Roy represents his partner Karen Zohari, Artside Mainline, Kaela Kalira, and AJ Dinkin. Roy is a great patron of the arts and we are all very excited about how he is marrying the SL art community with the RL international art community from Austrailia, to Holland, to England and now that Dixie will be showing in his Gallery, the Republic of Texas!

Cainin Griffith - the "Big Daddy" of the SL art world. Cainin showed a number of his limited pieces at the show including one that I had bought at one of his outstanding art auctions. I had managed to outbid Sasun "Grand Dame of SL art" Steinbeck and Cylindrian Rutabaga for the piece. He displayed it amongst other outstanding art because it is one of his best and you can't own it. Ha ha, I own it and it was a limited edition and you can't own it. Nah nah nah nah nah. (Sorry a little out of control).

Half Moxing - one of personal favorites and one of the 3000 AD artists. I bought one of his newest to go along with my favorite Half self portrait that I had bought a couple of months ago. Boy, he sure does a lot of self portraits. Makes you wonder (just kidding Half, I love you). Too bad Alto his running buddy couldn't make the show, but, Alto was immersed in another RPG game. What is Alto thinking. Come back to SL baby.

Selaras Partridge another one of my favorites, I have bought over the last year displayed as well. She brought a fantastic artistic, sculpture, painting combination conceptual piece called aquarium that I can't even begin to describe because it was so amazing! If I had the scratch and the room somewhere I certainly would have picked it up. But, I have to stay within my budget, so, it only allows me to pick up one of her landscapes, every now and then.

Roarth Gasparini my fellow Liam Mall compatriate also was kind enough to come show. Though Roarth is mostly known for his outstanding photography he also dabbles in art. Sorry, dabbles is not the right word. He is a very, very good artist. I bought a piece that I just loved called Enlightened. Beautiful and Bold! He brought his creative photography to the show in addition to the art.

Carlo Pimpernel could not make it because he wasn't in Second Life. He was busy visiting London. But, his agent, inara Bethune, showed up and set it up for him. Fantastic stuff. I love it because I have tried the same exact style in some of color texture studies I did a few years ago and can get nowhere close to the level he is at. Once again, I bought a painting for a friend as a Christmas present. It is called Dutch Sailboats (I wonder which friend it could be for) :)

Amythe Moonlight was kind enough to bring out her Christmas collection to the show. It including original Christmas Paintings, and sculptures of a Christmas Tree, Polar Bear, Person Caroling, etc. Great stuff and again I couldn't resist. You guys seeing a pattern here. I don't make money in SL because I am too busy buying. But, boy do I have a lot of fantastic art now.

Silver Click whom I displayed with at the last art show at McDunnoughs made it as well. His oversize art is always some of my favorite and I am so glad he got by to set up.

That will be the end of my first Blog. Now, you know why the warning at the beginning was warrented. Dixie can type, like there is no tomorrow. I just am so excited that the art show came off as well as it did. I can't thank Jed and Fay enough for all their support in partnering with me to host the show at McDunnough's. They are so supportive, as well as, talented individuals in Second Life and I am proud to call them my friends.