Reading Radar

Bellagio closed. Too bad.. their security goons will be missed.

While everyone else goes over the SL5B sims inch by inch, Chug and I went to one of the locations she posted up in the Destination Station to look around. The name of the place is Whimsy, and there’s actually three whimsy sims and two Eccentricity sims in a group of five sims there.

There’s a lot of island theme here, but not with the typical bent. This is different, and the topography and the builds and the look of everything here is interesting, and extremely well done… it was fun to just fly around and look.

On the south side, there’s pirate ships and elephants… sculpties still have some issues, but they can also look really good in the hands of the right creators.

There’s life under the sea in these sims too, most of which I’ll let you find for yourselves, but the octopus here concerned me a bit. When your leg comes out between your eyes, one of your parents wasn’t living a clean life. That’s all I’m saying.

There’s jungle…

There’s oriental architecture.

And not to be left out, there’s a volcano demanding virgin sacrifices, or at least some kind of sacrifices. There can’t be any virgins left in SL, they’re all paying women who are really men to make sure of that.

I liked the terraforming a lot. It’s unique and very well done.

We wound up in this cove area, which looked like a relaxing little spot, and that’s where we teleported out from.

You can find Whimsy linked to in the Destination Station on one of the many boards that Chug has put up. I knew the place would be a great way for others to find cool places to explore, but thanks to her work there, it’s probably going to give me a lot of new places to check out too.

Every so often listeners of the podcast tell me they came looking for me and couldn’t find me. They do know that Podcast and Podcaster Island are two good places to try though. But what about other podcasters? There’s a few great Second Life podcasts out there, and what about finding those people?

In this episode of SLPN In Your Face, which was actually made as a screencast for Crap’s SL5B podcast build, Chug and I thought we’d show you some places where podcasters can be found.

Podcasters abound in Second Life. Find the shows you like, and don’t be afraid to ditch those you don’t. Egos have no place in podcast, IMO. They just guarantee it’ll be harder to reach out and finally REALLY get to the masses.

My podcast is so popular, I’ve been voted “Village Idiot” 15 years running. That’s since 14 years before the podcast started!! Awesome. In order to share the love, I thought I’d give out some awards of my own.

Podcaster of the Year, 2008

2008’s hardly over yet, but, for me the votes are in. I dub Nika Dreamscape of Diamonds and Rust and From This To That as this year’s podcaster of the year.

Nika joined SL just a few months ago, and is already a podcaster, in-world filmer of short, funny clips, and also creates and sells in-world photography art. Better yet, she revived Keeme’s enthusiasm for SL, and as a direct result, I personally have gotten to know Keeme better than ever before. Finally, she’s added depth to other podcasts such as the most recent episode of Itazura Radio’s Rezzed and Confused. Diamonds and Rust, with the last episode, gelled into a smooth cohesive podcast with Nika and Keeme sounding like they’ve been podcasting together for years.

Most Informative Podcast, 2008

Hands down, Itazura Radio’s Rezzed and Confused is the most informative and technically factual SL related podcast. It’s also a fun listen, and best of all, IMO, it’s injected some life back into SL podcasting. It’s gotten me interested in new ways again.

Friend of Podcasting, 2008

What can you say? Crap built the tower with the podcaster links and promos. He constantly collaborates with others and pimps their stuff. And finally, he single-handedly built the SL5B exhibit on podcasting, which will benefit all of us. The guy’s a dynamo of podcasting promotion, creation, and collaboration.

Got anyone else you love for 2008? It’s not too late for me to make up some other cheezy, useless awards. Send in your nominations!

Listening to Crap’s ‘Podcasting in Second Life’, aka ipodjacker, I was reminded that I have a bone to pick with something I heard in a podcast once. The podcaster said that friends known only online can’t or shouldn’t be really considered friends in the same way that friends who’ve taken the last beer from your fridge or peed on the floor in your restroom can be. He’s wrong, and I keep meaning to do a podcast segment on this. Not a running segment, just a one time thing. I need to say to him…

MORON!!!

Anyway, for someone that’s NOT a moron, check out Crap’s new podcast effort for the SL5B.

“Click me!”

Crap, if you’re listening / reading / seeing blue turtles in the sky, I am working on those screencasts.

The SL Under the Radar podcast is getting a new home. You won’t notice by the URL’s as they won’t change. But the look and the rss feed will change. Hopefully itunes updates ok and nothing’s lost… meaning listeners.

It looks a LOT like this blog, actually! No coincidence there.. I’m using the Freshy2 wordpress theme for both. Actually the old RadarMasukami.com blog theme was Freshy (the original). The more things change, the more I stay up late at night moving stuff around… I mean, the more it stays the same! Yeah. Or something.

PS. The bad thing is I lost all the listener comments because libsyn, as far as I can tell, does not have a way to export the feed like any other real blog software ever used by mankind.

Ok, now that I can embed videos again, here’s Dexter and crew performing Papillion in the Turquoise Planet.

You can subscribe to the SLPN Video rss feed or in itunes.

Ok, that doesn’t work as well as “I declare, I go into Second Life” but that’s ok.. the point is, I moved the blog so I could do things like embed blip.tv videos (see above and below).

Please let me know if you encounter any problems or if you’d like a link in my blogroll.

Everyone knows Crap! Crap Mariner. Laurence Simon. 100 word stories. Edloe. etc. Yadda Yadda. Head Pervert.

For SL’s 5th Birthday, Crap decided to do a podcasting educational build. Cool. Unfortunately although I promised to help, I’m worthless but I am putting together some screencasts that I hope will at least be slightly useful. Really.

Check out the lil video he dunn made.

Anyway. Learn it. Love it. Live it.

You already know that Dexter Ihnen puts on a great show. You already know that the turquoise planet is a great venue (if not, you should). With all this knowledge, if you missed Dexter’s Timescape CD launch event tonight, June 1st of 2008, you should probably be upset with yourself (or me, if you think I should have told you). Wow - what a show! Dexter IS a master performer. And wow, the venue looks amazing too. The changes that Itazura Radio made to it make this an even more amazing place.

Dexter was awesome, as usual. He really knows how to put on a show. It’s really no wonder that his fans are loyal, rabid types (in a good way), and it has to be seen to be appreciated. Pictures don’t really do it justice at all. I did catch some video of Desolation Angel and Papillion that I’ll post into the SLPN IYF feed if possible, but I just want to clear it with Dexter first. It is his music, and I’d like to afford him that courtesy. I want the video to be high quality, so I’m not going to youtube it or compress it heavily. Even formatted for the ipod, the two videos I have will be big ass files, and that’s just how it is.

Another fun, fantastic event by a great performer. I think this venue design that Itazura came up with really matches the energy and excitement of Dexter’s music and performances.