Archive for the ‘Miscellaneous’ Category

Second Life and Game! Magazine

Monday, January 14th, 2008

Last month I was contacted by Ms. Diane Reyes of Game! Magazine but prior to that I was asked by Ms. Eva Gubat, Editorial Manager of Game! Magazine, by e-mail if I would like to be a member of their writing pool. I said to myself, if they think my writing is good enough for their magazine then why not so I told her yes.

As I’ve said, Ms. Diane, who is an Editorial Assistant, contacted me and asked if I’m willing to take on a writing assignment and guess what, the topic was Second Life. I accepted the assignment and she gave me a week to write the story. It was my first time writing for a nationally syndicated magazine and it’s scaring the crap out of me. (more…)

Released – wpTheme_Kabalyero 1.0

Thursday, January 10th, 2008

If you’ve been here a few months ago then I guess you would have seen that this blog once used the wordpress theme pictured below (see photo). I called it wpTheme_Kabalyero 1.0 or 1a. It’s a very simple custom made theme which I designed and created specially for this blog. It only has 2 columns and it’s very narrow because I never thought that I would be needing more space for plugins and content back then. Well, the blog grew and I converted that same theme to have 3 columns and made it wider and that was version 1.1 or version 1b of the theme. Now, as you can see, I am using a new custom theme, which I made myself, and named it wpTheme_Kabalyero 2.0 or 2a.

Kabalyero.com Theme 1.0

My Old Wordpress Theme

What happened to the old wordpress themes? Well, it’s rotting inside my hard drive that is why I decided to release my custom made theme for this blog, wpTheme_Kabalyero 1.0, to everyone.

I’ve made a few modifications on the theme to prepare it for general use and if you would like to use it on your own blog then you can download it here.

DOWNLOAD FILE HERE

PGMA Lives a Second Life

Tuesday, November 27th, 2007

It seems that PGMA (President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) just got into Second Life. Various news sources have confirmed that our (Philippines) President is now officially a Second Life resident. LOL!

Other personalities also activated their avatars in Second Life like Department of Science and Technology Secretary Estrella Alabastro and IBM Executive Vice President for Innovation and Technology Nick Donofrio. Honestly, I don’t know who they are but their titles sounds very important. LOL!

The avatars were created by Gabby Dizon of Flipside Games under the direction of IBM Philippines.

Now that she has an avatar in-world would she be the one controlling her avatar? Or will they hire or have hired someone to play her role as President? Or will she just be there for display purposes only? Makes you think and ask questions, right? LOL!

Anyway, I think the Filipino Second Life community is very excited about this and this might also encourage more Filipinos to use Second Life. This might even attract local businesses to set up offices in-world.

PGMA
(Photo from Hackenslash)

Contest Entry

Tuesday, November 27th, 2007

I wasn’t doing anything important this morning so I decided to give the VPRS Kiosk Kontest a try. Besides camping and exploring, I am also an aspiring builder (we can dream right?) and this kind of contest is a great learning tool and a great way to exercise and develop some skills.

My idea for the Kiosk is to make it really simple and to use a maximum of only 5 prims. I already have a picture of the Kiosk in my mind so after putting together some basic shapes I was able to complete the frame of the kiosk. The next thing I did is create the textures. Using Photoshop and some Stock Photos, I was able to create the textures I needed for the kiosk, so, I logged back in and applied the textures I made to the kiosk. The end product looked like this:

Kiosk

The kiosk I made uses a log as base with wooden boards for the signs. Almost all of the textures are custom made except for the piece of wood that’s holding the big poster board.

Kiosk

It is only 5 prims and if you remove the big poster board then it will only be 3 prims.

Kiosk

The advantage of having a high prim build is that you can have more details, the disadvantage is that you’ll use more prims. With a low prim build, you can use textures to simulate the details you need. For my kiosk, I think I used 5 custom textures. 3 for the boards and 2 for the log.

Win 5,000L$

Monday, November 26th, 2007

Virtual Park and Recreational Service is a non-profit organization that supports non-profit locations in Virtual Worlds like Second Life. Currently, they are running a Build a Kiosk Contest in Second Life and it has a prize of 5,000L$. Below are the details of the contest:

Virtual Park and Recreational Service

Contest Rules

  1. Contest Begins November 24th, 2007 and ends December 8th, 2007
  2. Entries MUST be 10 prims or less
  3. Entries MUST have 1 texture face that says “TOUCH TO EXPLORE” or some variation on this phrase that encourages residents to touch the Kiosk. Size and design are up to the builder, but there is a texture available for this if you choose to utilize it (dimension ratio of 2:1). Please leave the texture face “BLANK” if you wish to use the default.
  4. Entries MUST have 1 prim for the VPRS logo that has a size ratio of 2:1. Actual size is up to the builder.
  5. Entries may have 1 optional prim for our current event poster. This prim’s dimension is up to the builder, but the poster panel MUST be large enough to be legible in order to be considered useful. This optional prim must also exist within your 10 prim limit.
  6. Entries MUST NOT be scripted.
  7. Entries MUST be “Natural” in design; i.e. trees, rocks, mushrooms, etc. NOTE: This does NOT mean they must resemble something iRL!
  8. Entry Submissions MUST be named “VPRSKK (Your Avatar Name Here)”

9. Entrants MUST provide their entry to Higbee Protagonist with FULL PERMISSIONS by 11:59pm SLT on December 8th, 2007!

Judging

Entry Judging will happen in 2 steps:

Step 1 – The VPRS Staff will have 24 hours after the contest concludes to determine the top 5 entries by private ballot. Entries will be judged on prim usage, design, and approachability. Entries will receive bonus marks for using less prims and for using the optional event poster prim. NOTE: This does NOT mean a 10 prim entry with no optional prim will not be chosen! Please remember however that these kiosks will be used throughout SecondLife©, and it will be in the group’s best interest to keep the prim count low in order to avoid infringing on user prim limits.

Step 2 – The Top 5 Entries will be displayed at the VPRS home location in West Helsen for 1 week, and anyone may stop by and vote for their favorite entry. This final judging term will start on December 10th, 2007 and end at 11:59p SLT on December 16th, 2007.

On December 17th, 2007 the winner will be announced via Group Notice, our Google Group, and our website!

Contest Winner

The Winner of the “Kiosk Kontest” will receive:

  • 5000L$
  • Credit and photo on our website Kiosk page
  • Credit in all notecards distributed by our Kiosks
  • and of course – Their entry distributed throughout SecondLife© as our newest Kiosk, version 3.0!

Good Luck and Happy Building!!!

The contest is open to all Builders. Visit VPRS website or in-world at West Helsen (50, 174, 64) to learn more about them!

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