Artificial Boy

Kids5B exhibit Starry Nap by David Thurman, Alton Icarus (49, 68, 24)
If you wear yourself out coloring, painting, and making stuff out of clay, right next to the craft center is my brother David’s Starry Nap Room, inspired by Le Petit Prince. Just walk through the wall behind the Craft Center to see the exhibit, and you can take a cuddly nap on a big yellow star. David says that Sok plans to do a story reading in here. Read the rest…

Kids5B exhibit Art Center by Adz Childs, Alton Icarus (49, 90,23)
This is an art center designed after art classrooms found in elementary school, or activity centers found at summer camp. I created this exhibit because one of my favorite things to do is color and create things used for coloring. My new brother David must like it too, because one of his first creations is an easel which he calls ‘caballete dibujo’. I put it out on display too. Read the rest…

Kids5B exhibit The RanDom Family Gallery by Adz Childs and David Thurman
Remedy II (199, 148, 24), Kids5B, JUNE 23 - JULY 7, 2008.
Photos of Random Family, selected items from their home. Read the rest…

turning left and walking a few steps backwards, or saying a bad,bad word out loud.

Not your ordinary toolbelt! Read the rest…

Response to Open Forum: What Was *Your* First Hour In SL Like?. Hamlet Au asks, “I wonder, however, if all this is looking at the problem backwards. Forget figuring out why 90% of those who came, left. Instead, isn’t it more important to run a resilience study, and locate the commonalities between the 10% who stayed, and build on that? So I put the question to readers: if you’re an active Resident, what happened in your first hour in Second Life that kept you here?”
Answer:

Join Date 4/4/2006

My first hour
Trying to make my avatar look like a child.

My second hour
A Linden-made sign in Waterhead had a notecard full of landmarks. One of them was captioned “who wants free ice cream?” Indeed!

…Trying to fly across the ocean towards the red beacon, and realizing that the dark blue regions were impassable.

…Arriving at the ice cream shop and eating an ice cream cone by myself.

My third hour
…Feeling lonely and brainstorming where to find like-minded people. The best i could think of was adoption agencies. I searched for one and found one, but it was empty. The second one I found was populated, and I stayed there for more than a week.

Epilogue
The ice cream place is gone now. I took my first set of foster parents there, when arranging to meet them for the first time. It was empty for that visit, too.
The adoption agency is long gone now, too.
*sniffle*

If you’re looking for me I’ll be at Kids5B, setting up stuff. Read the rest…

((
Okay so it appears Linden Lab® will allow builds in the names of the PG kids groups such as SLC and BSSL. This comment by Katt Linden on Dusan Writer’s Metaverse’s blog post Linden Regroups and the Kids Are In.

On 06.03.08 Katt Linden said:

Dusan,

It doesn’t matter what sort of avatar you have, everyone interested can submit builds to the Birthday Celebration.

If any submissions aren’t accepted it’ll be because they are too “adult” in nature, not because of the looks of the avatar.

As someone involved in the original brainstorming about adding to the celebration, I assure you that we’re trying to make it more fun and valuable for everyone, full stop.

Thanks,
– Katt Linden

This should clear up any lingering doubts left by the less-than-clear LL official blog post SL5B: Birthday Expanded and New Submission Deadlines by everettlinden.

Overall this is a very good thing. It is good that Linden Lab finally realized that they must remain true to their principles. Second Life® is a platform of creative expression and should not be unduly limited. As much as Linden Lab wants to shift the focus of Second Life to the more profitable and laudable corporate and education interests, it cannot forget its foundations. The cynical way to put it is, Linden Lab needs to “dance with the date who brung ya.” I think a more tempered way to put it is that the two goals are not mutually exclusive. Heh… Dusan’s going to get a second link from me today. But I can’t say it better.

Dusan Writer - Children, Chains and Cold Cash: The Business Case for SL5B

Which leaves us, of course, with collaboration and education. But first, this event is not a “business showcase” and it’s not an “education fair” it’s a community event. And if they think that businesses and schools will be scared off by some kids and some leather-clad men then I hate to break it to them - but that horse has already left the barn. It’s not as if this stuff will be all that NEW - if you’re a school and you’ve decided to look at SL, you’ve already SEEN the press, you KNOW what’s there, and you either come or you don’t. A few little builds at a community even it hardly going to repel your corporate pocketbooks - they’ve already been repelled already or they’ve sucked it up and have come on board.

Stop to think, why are businesses and educational institutions interested in Second Life? Is it because it is a squeaky-clean environment with absolutely no controversy, no weirdos, and no freaks? I haven’t been a party to discussions between LL and potential clients, but this seems quite unlikely. They are interested because it is an open and creative platform. They are interested for the same reasons I am, the same reasons everyone comes here, the same reasons Second Life was created in the first place.

I’m glad LL decided to take the good with the bad.

As an added bonus, this event caused what I would call an outpouring of support. Honestly, more than I thought we’d get, considering we’re all a bunch of pervs.

It looks like Kids5B will go on, in parallel. The organizers say they will submit the whole thing as a proposed build. I don’t know what will happen, and I’m not worried about it one bit. I’m sorry I can’t take a more active role. Since I’m not taking a front seat, if the whole thing falls apart, i.e. if any of Kids5B, SLC, and BSSL’s contributions fall through, I can’t say a word. I know many of the people involved in all three projects have put alot into it. But I also know that of all the builds, the official SL5B SLC build was the only one for which planning started before June 1st. If the others happen too, I look forward to contributing what I can. If they don’t, oh well.

When I start building my arts and crafts display for Kids5B, I’ll start posting about that.
))