Enter the Geek!

So, I havent been as active on SL lately. Last couple of days have been a little hectic leading towards my special weekend. Im literally a couple of hours away from being at London Expo which I am really excited about. It was such an awesome experience when I visited last May, and it was my first time at such an event. I had never been amongst so many cosplayers and it was so much fun walking around pointing, laughing and asking sheepishly to get our photos taken with some of the really attractive ones. Its always exciting to be amongst some industry professionals, artists, actors and even musicians. I remember sitting for a while at the manga-alley and doodling with tons of other would-be artists. Ive met so many cool people my last visit, some of whom I'll be meeting up again with today... I cant wait to see what mischief I'll get into and what new wonderful people I'll meet.


Its also a chance to catch up with some old friends. Chat, mingle and successfully flirt my way back into their hearts is what I have on the cards for today. Its also an opportunity to squander large amounts of cash on shiny things... shiny things Im sure my eyes will latch onto while sprawling through the marshlands of retailers there. Oooh, so pretty much what I do in SecondLife then. *smiles*


So - the housing issue hasnt been officially settled yet. I havent been able to spend as much time in SL and Posy has suffered problems since the last update. I feel a little bad about it - but its out of both of our hands. Im sure things will be settled soon and everything will happy- happy, joy-joy!


I still havent been able to release new clothes liked Id hoped. The whole pirate issue sucked any fun out of creating anything there for a while and some real-life freelance work took priority. *sighs* Im pinning for next week for another clothing-release dump... lets all cross our fingers shall we? - Its safer then holding our breath! *laughs*

To those of you who have been wondering where your Donnie has been, well now you know. The stories of me suffering from a pirate related death are completely untrue... Im alive and well and mewing happily. I'll return to active SL duties soon, more drama, more innuendo and more time for me to play with my balls . . . of yarn. XD


*waves excitedly from RL*
Don

A bridge over troubled water...

So the last couple of days have been full of drama, huzzah! Rosie told me that SL goes hand in hand with it and I have to agree. If there is one thing Ive learnt from my stay here, its that SecondLife comes infused with drama and we breathe it like polluted air. But Im more the sort thats willing to digest it in small bite-sized pieces...not king-sized buffet portions.

Ive just logged onto SL and Ive recieved a notecard from Noam. I decided to get an early night yesterday, so I must of missed out on the fun-time gathering.

The note reads:

Hi Posy and Don,
I talked to the neighbor and everything is pretty much fixed. Since you guys aren't on I can't explain everything, but basically we had a normal civil discussion and he's a normal guy. There are 3 things we came up with to settle all this crap.

1) Move the Skybox down. I actually went to his ship and honestly, the sky box is huge and it's really really noticable and looks frankly.. bad from underneath. No he didn't handle it in the best manner, but I think he felt threatened like POsy intentionally wanted to destroy his view and thus he retaliated with the wall.
If you move the sky box down to 400 ish , there isn't anyone around and it's got no clouds and neither of your views will be crappy.

2) Don needs to be civil and appologize for calling him a Nazi and a Pussy. The only reason they continued to harrass Posy last night was because of what Don said. It took A LOT to talk him out of just declaring war on you. We talked for like an hour and everything was very cool and relaxed, so he's not some insane psycho teenager being a prick for fun. He was extremely insulted, especially since he didn't call anyone names. I explained to him that his logs came off as really bad and he did not realize that. It's all a big test in empathy here. I get the impression that he is a little stubborn, but overall a nice dude. He probably got it in his head that you two were the teenagers fucking with him and the Nazi/ pussy remarks proved his theory.

3) He's going to talk to his GF and get her to calm down. She's really pissed off and that's why she has been building all the little houses. I didn't talk to her, but she's apparently all ready to do some nasty stuff. He's going to talk her out of it though.

That's it. Posy I hope you enjoy your Waterfall. I'll help you move stuff tomorrow and get it all under your ownership.
Love you guys!=^..^=Noam

P.S.- The bill for my lawyer fees is in the mail.

Noam is my best friend and I trust his judgement, if he says this Agusto is a nice guy...then Im sure he probably is. But from what Ive been made to understand its looking as if my words were the catalyst for his behaviour the previous night. Did I call him a Nazi? Yes I did. Did I call him a pussy? Yes I did...and a fucking pussy at that. - But BEFORE you all comment with the "OH teh NOES thats bad - how juvenile!" Let me justify my actions by putting to light what our dear Agusto had said to Posy.

Agusto Aquitaine: hmmmm, i was gonna say omg! whats up with putting this ugly house up next to my boat??? and then thanks for ruining my view :-( and then call u a name.......like a teenager or inconsiderate..... i figured u would take offence to that so i built my wall, in conjunction with what i thought u found attractive considering the monstrosity that you put up there......so now that we have a dialog, we can discuss what we are willing to do with our beautiful pieces of art :) have a gread day :D (Let me remind you that this is coming from someone who dresses like hes in a YMCA video - lets not discuss art with him)

*By this point Posy had extended a housing wall to cover the brick wall he'd produced*

Agusto Aquitaine: see, now i think you might want to fix your transgression of extending that wall.....if you look carefully, you will notice that I also own the land on the other side of yours, and am VERY willing to clone my ugly wall on that side also and if need be, extend both sides to the ground, and above your building capability....
(All the messages he sent here were offline IMs)

Those look like bully tactics to me. Regardless IF our house was in his view, you DO NOT stamp your feet and carry yourself in the way he did. Agusto's first words to me were argumentative, I retaliated in how I thought was best at the time - ANGER. He might not have called me names, but conducting himself in such a manner - despite his vocabulary does not defuse the fact that his actions were that of a wanker. (for definition please see previous post)

If the situation were to happen again, I would of done exactly the same thing. I dont mince my words, I usually say what I think... If someone is going to act like a 'fucking pussy' I will tell them so. But I will apologise if just to put this whole matter behind us, I dont want any more stress to befall Posy and I would be much happier to continue making clothes and watching movies in the sky.

Well, thats all for now pretty kitties. Until next post!

Don

Ye' Pirate wankers!

There are just some people whos sole purpose in life is to create drama, to disturb the peaceful balance, to do the one thing they have the talent for - be a complete wanker.

wank‧er Pronunciation [wang-ker]
–noun Chiefly British Slang (vulgar).
1. a contemptible person; jerk.
2. a male masturbator.

Our dramatic tale begins with Posy recently buying new land. It seemed a perfect time to build on the momentum of her successful skins, and take that plunge with a boost to her prim count. Now Posy is someone who loves challenging herself with projects, I was with her throughout the 'tasty skin' endeavour. I watched on as she carefully crafted this skin from start to finish and I was so proud of her when she finally released them. Well, a new home is a project that she has decided to undertake upon the rencent purchase of this land. I was happy to go with the flow, and so for the last couple of days Posy has chiselled and fashioned prims to her will.
However, it was made apparent to me yesterday that devious acts were taking place at the new household. Noam showed me the transcript of what had transpired and I was sickened at the very idea. Agusto Aquitaine is the owner of the neighbouring land just beside us, he owns a huge floating pirate ship.

To him our new skybox was an eyesore, it apparently ruined the view from his pirate ship. His soloution? Create a big prim wall to cover us. Now this errected monstrosity was placed RIGHT next to our home, destroying our view and blocking us from seeing anything from the left side. He had done this without openning a civilized dialogue to maybe discuss something we could all be happy with. He had done this to instigate a responce, to create friction and just continue his lifes work of being...yes you've guessed it - A WANKER!


The logic there just dosent add up to me, why would you cover something you thought was ugly with something just downright horrific? If we were to translate this decision process into something more everyday for instance...like pimples for example. Pimples, spots, zits however you want to call them ARE the bane of the face. Using his logic, to cover these eye-sores we'd grab a big handful of shit and lovingly smear it on the area of disgust. Sounds crazy right? I know - I totally couldnt get into his mind...until later that day when I saw him.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Agusto Aquitaine. Things were beginning to make sense, I mean - c'mon! did the village people lose a member? Pirates, yum...we all love us a bit of delicious Captain Jack Sparrow. Agusto however, reminds me of a gimped version of Sinbad the sailor, and he has sinned VERY badly.

Posy was already upset about the events that had happened, Noam and myself had done our part to reassure her that everything would be okay. That it didnt matter what these people thought and we would enjoy our new home regardless. So as Posy went to dine stress free, Noamy and I went driving around in his new nissan. Our kitty adventure took us all the way to the Nissan sim, where I would purchase my own from the comedically HUGE car vending machine. But as Posy returned to continue work on the house, so did our fashion-challenged pirate. This time however with his first-mate Teresa Mullen to errect another monstrosity by the OTHER side of us. He owns the land either side of the one Posy purchased and started to fulfill his threatened promises by taking away our view from the other side.

By this time, Agusto had already blocked me from IMing him. Apparently my use of the words pussy and fucking werent to his liking. BUT, he continued to IM Posy... she was distraught and he continued his bully tactics to get what he wanted - which Im sure was for us to move. Posy was shattered and was ready to give in... But Noam came to her rescue. We both told her it would be okay, that you shouldnt give them the satisfaction of leaving. Noam - a true friend, began building a wonderous lake and waterfall to help complete a new beautiful retreat for Posy. And as soon as Posy was able to relax and remove the control of these pathetic bullies there was NOTHING they could do.

Oooooh, on a side note however. Noamy DID actually create this really sexy tracktop! Im so in love with it!


Well, drama drama drama... Everything seems to be easing into a state of normality again. There isnt anything Agusto can do to upset/bully Posy anymore and Posy is back to her adorable self! *laughs*

Until next time pretty kitties!

Don

The butler did it!

Yesterday was an interesting evening in SL. It was my friend Thorns birthday and to celebrate his boyfriend had rented out this murder mystery event at Beyond the Prim. Ive not been to many different areas in SL just yet, most of my experiences stem from either chilling at the block, DJing at a club or just being unsocial at my house. So it was definately a welcomed change, and an enjoyable one at that. The party begun by getting acquainted with some of the other guests at the destination and waiting agonisingly for the place to load. I dont know what it is, but SL has definately been more sluggish for me on the rezzing end. When filled in however the buildings were well-crafted and equally deliciously textured. The event started by getting our photographs taken, it didnt go without its small hiccups however as my girlfriend struggled to not crash. But like the others, we too eventually got our photograph taken. Look at the scary ghost of David, trying to touch up Posy - What the fuck dude!



Apart from a sim crash nearing the end of the event, it all went rather smoothly. Aside from the party guests the murder mystery was populated with character actors who each had their own motive for the possible murder of David (the deseased in this mystery). We would find out a little from each character through various different set-ups, the initial introduction of each person, a game of charades and conversations through dinner. The actors kept strictly in character and it was really interesting watching their interactions with each other, their snide little remarks and comments. It was up to us guests to keep track of what was going on until we'd all have to guess who the actual culprit was. Even after successfully winning four special clues (you'd recieve them for answering questions correctly and winning games) I was the ONLY one to guess incorrectly. *sighs* Guess Im not as smart as Id like to think, but at least my girlfriend got it right. So YAY!

Oooo... also, I saw a new updated version of Zabitans new skin. And I have to say it is looking rather tasty, us boys are in for a treat. I remember having a conversation with Noam about how almost every guy was running around in that Dante ND skin, he said it would probably be easier to name those that havent got it. And you know what - thats SO true. I think we are all getting a little tired of these ND skins... it might be a perfect time for Zabby to release to the rejoicing of many Im sure.

On the GearShift front, Im going to try and have a few things released again this week. Ive been working on a new hoodie and I have some ideas also for some buttoned-up club shirts that I think could be fun. On the side, I have been experimenting with skins as I thought it might be a nice challenge. Im going to completely paint mine from the ground up, I have quite a bit of experience with actual life-drawing and digital painting. So Im sure I could get something rather nice done, its just finding the time for this mammoth project. Id really like to have more items of clothing out before I really commit to this. I have a growing to-do list for GearShift and Im trying to attack it one at a time. *laughs*

Well - until next time my pretty kitties.

Don

Aesthetics of boredom

Yesterday my new friend Kir showed me some of his videos on youtube.com. Now Ive always had fun just randomly browsing the endless videos and strange web-cam rants that plague this portal like a sexual transmitted disease. But - Id never really thought of actually posting my own videos until yesterday. I wanted to show something Id made, but I didnt really want to go through the whole business of - 'Hey, do you have MSN messeger or anything like that?' then have to wait ages for this 27mb movie to transfer JUST so he could see it. So, I uploaded some of my movies and yay Im totally addicted. Im finding myself looking for other strange movies Ive made just so I can upload them.

Its a little known fact - especially to most of my SL friends...But I actually have dreams of becoming a director. I bet those who know me are right now thinking - 'Hell, I could of taken a guess you wanted to shoot porn.' or 'Hey, can I be in your pornos?' Well no, not that kind of director I mean a REAL director... no offence to any porn directors, Im sure your whole gonzo dp scenes are made with the upmost artistic intergrity.

I used to make movies every summer with friends, we'd grab a camera and shoot random things we'd think up on the spot. They'd all be inside houses and we'd be in our socks performing badly acted fight scenes with plastic gun props...It was great! As we got older we began to actually come up with scripts so that there was more form to what we were doing. We'd involve other friends and some of our projects got really complicated - with cars, blood etc. Ooooh, the editting was torture! We'd edit from camera straight to VHS, it was a sort of guessing/timing game to get ALL of a scene in as there was a short delay every time you pushed record and stop...you didnt want to bleed in seconds of another scene in. There was none of this digital editting we have now - back then it was hardcore cheap ass entertainment. - WOW, I just had a whole reminisce-type moment... I wonder what they are all doing now. *sighs*

Well - I uploaded this movie I did in my third year of university. It was an introduction for a verbal presentation I was giving about the Aesthetics of The Matrix. It was a whole scripted affair, my partners waited outside of the lecture theatre and I would stand there alone - apologising for my partners absence. I would then proceed to call up on the phone and ask where they are - at the same time as the movie was playing. He would answer and then we would watch the rest of the movie - following my partners journey to the lecture theatre in matrix fashion. The movie runs a tad over 2 minutes and contains some early experimentation with 3D - YES... cheap bullet time! *laughs*



Weeeee... fun, no? Well with that I shall leave you all to ponder my transition to the adult film industry.

Until next time!

Don

Monkey see, monkey do!

So alot of my cool friends seem to be into this new fangled inter-webby thingy called blogging. Not wanting to seem out of touch I thought Id follow suit and make my own.

*waits for internet rejoicing to commence*

....

*notices no such thing will happen for yet ANOTHER ego-fuelled 20-somethinger and their delirious net ramblings*

So, I guess I'll start by introducing myself. Im one of the many square eyed copper-tops fuelling this huge virtual world called SecondLife. My name is Donovan Brennen and I, my wonderful reader(s) am a neko. *gasp* Yes, I have ears and a tail and prance around beguiling fellow inhabitants with my cuteness.
My SL experience although short has been such a rewarding one, Ive met so many wonderful people and found all new creative outlets for me to tinker with. One of my main obsessions in SL is creating nice things for people to wear at my GearShift stores. Although my library of wearable attire and accessories is small right now, I plan to keep expanding it and hopefully branch out to other things as I develop my skills.



So, Id like to use this blog to hopefully show what things I MAY be working on and releasing. Aswell as maybe throwing random artwork in and occassional rants. So hurrah for another addition to the already VAST blogging universe.



Hmm... so what to talk about? Well... I did bump into Fallingwater yesterday while hanging with the other 'alley kids' at the block. She owns this wonderful store called Shiny Things and I am completely head-over-heals in love with her shoes. I confess to geeking out a tad in front of her, Im always in awe of great designers. . .and Fallingwater is definately one of the best. She was visiting to research what other designers had done with messenger bags (she plans on making one). She was insistent on calling them 'manbags' which we all took great amusement in. She even had time to comment on my 'man-tail' *laughs* what fun! And in case you were wondering - yes, we did indeed throw in the obvious 'manbag' jokes. Har Har!



Im so excited that my new releases are doing well, my 'Versus' hoodie/jacket is selling nicely. I love hanging at the block and just chatting with potential customers, Ive met some really nice shoppers the last week or so and they've had such nice things to say about my work. Im still fairly new as a designer but hearing things like that really fills you with confidence.


So right now Im busy working on some new hoodies, I myself wear them alot in real life, so it only makes sense for me to give them a right seeing to in SL. So expect dirty textured hoodies to be hitting the shelfs of your nearest GearShift store soon. :)



Until next time.

Don