The World According to Jennyfur

Art and Design in Second Life: Exploring Virtual Worlds Tuesday,
Sept 15th 5 – 7 pm CBS Auditorium,
Hamilton Hall @ The University of the Arts (320 S. Broad St.)
Sponsored by The Corzo Center for the Creative Economy

Artists, designers, educators, musicians, and institutions are coming together and creating a 3-D interactive online community that transcends the boundaries of physical possibility.

The discussion by Jeff Lipsky and Richard Minsky introduces the art, marketplace, and design possibilities of Second Life and Virtual Worlds. They’ll survey a variety of applications, including new directions in the creation and marketing of art, innovative learning experiments, global outreach through virtual museums and libraries, and the uses of virtual spaces for distance learning and community development.

Jeff Lipsky is an artist who makes abstract narrative paintings and drawings. As Flithy Fluno, his Second Life avatar, he specializes in using online virtual world and social networking technologies to connect to international audiences, marketplaces, and local arts communities. His work has been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the world, and he has been featured in dozens of articles, including The New York Times Magazine, Art Calendar Magazine, the Boston Globe as well as on a number of websites – Artnet, ARtinfo.com, Minskyreport.com, etc.

Richard Minsky resides in the virtual world of Second Life as avatar ArtWorld Market and is the founder of SLART, a critical review and journal of Second Life art. His study, “The Art World Market of Second Life,” was the first to examine the differences and similarities between real life and Second Life art, including questions of aesthetic, technical, legal and economics. He is also founder of the Center for Books Arts, an acclaimed center for the study and craft of book design. He is himself a well-known book designer, whose work has been exhibited in major museums and galleries in the United States and abroad.

I’ve been meaning to write about this for awhile…. On July 11, 2009 in Philadelphia, a celebration took place cleverly called a “Flesh Mob for Fat Liberation” to promote fat acceptance to celebrate persons who are overweight or obese. At least the event promoted some physical activity i.e. running up the art museum steps ala Rocky and a post-BBQ dance party. I have to say at the very least I am conflicted about how I feel about celebrating being fat and/or obese. I agree with the basic mission of the event and that yes, fat people are people too, who deserve to be loved, accepted and whatnot. I would never advocate body dysmorphia and do think that we should accept our bodies and more importantly who we are as individuals.

I am conflicted about this as someone who has struggled with their weight for the better part of their teen and adult life. I’ve gone from both ends of the spectrum to thinking I was grossly overweight at 128 pounds to being grossly overweight pushing 220 pounds and being okay with the fatty & happy lifestyle.  I certainly was much healthier when I was within the weight range for my height and that overlaps anything from 135 to 169, so there are 34 pounds of leeway depending on other factors. As I grew more and more overweight, I became increasingly unhealthy as a result. Not to mention, when I was at my heaviest having to wear a back brace most of the time because I was in constant pain from carrying around so much extra weight on my torso.

Back to the event, I’ve been tracking some of the conversations happening in response to this event and some of the photographs taken at the event. I find the commentary on both sides to be enlightening. I think people should be happy with who they are as people and accepted as such, but always be working towards improving themselves because let’s face it — no one is perfect and should live in a constant state of status quo.

One of the arguments I’ve seen come up time and time again is that overweight & obese people are a marginalized  minority and the media is constantly shoving thin/skinny is better mantras down our throat. Really? Statistics show by 2015 that 75% of Americans will be overweight. So how marginalized is 75% of the population of this country? Wait, I’m not great with math and numbers, but I think that when something is at 75% that signifies it being in the majority. That remaining 25% minority is comprised of the people who are either within a healthy weight range for their height and lifestyle and the probably even smaller minority of people who are underweight, my guess there is that would be all those size 2 super models and actresses in Hollywood, meth addicts, coke head hipsters and extremely improverished persons.  So, perhaps the healthy and fit are the marginalized ones here? I’m curious, as always, to see how well a “thin pride” event would  go over.

Obesity related problems costs the health care system tens of billions of dollars a year and as Diabetes rapidly approaches pandemic levels. Unless, you are genetically predisposed towards it, its treatable and preventable with diet and exercise. I worked in health care for a few years back in the late 1990s and have seen how devastating diabetes can be on the human body. I have to ask will these people be celebrating their fat pride when they have to have their toes/feet/legs amputated? when they get wounds that won’t heal? when their flesh rots away from ulcers? and so on and so forth. I’ve seen it all in various degrees. This is the reality of the situation that cannot be ignored. The last point in contention related to the above and event in general, is that people seem to be offended by the “fat isn’t healthy” argument as if it shouldn’t be mentioned at all. What are the health benefits of being overweight or obese? I don’t know of any offhand, if you do please enlighten me. Isn’t not mentioning just how unhealthy our nation is part of the problem?

Personally, I don’t want to live in fear and I do want to enjoy life. I am a firm believer in moderation and balance. If you live every day in excess, it is going to take a toll on you throughout the course of your life.  Since I have lost 35 pounds since January, I have become a happier person, not because I am thinner, but because I am healthier.

Hopefully I haven’t offended anyone as that is not my intention. I am on a journey through various forms of thought on health and fitness since it is a whole new area of exploration for me.

I write on many topics some that overlap each other and others that are completely different. Rather than starting a blog for each, I have created separate feed categories for each topic category, so you can follow my social media postings without having to read about health and fitness. I may add or change feeds from time to time, but here are the main ones I use.

Social Media Feed – Postings on social media such as Facebook, Twitter etc.

Virtual Worlds & Gaming Feed – Postings about activities within Second Life, World of Warcraft and other online virtual worlds and games.

Health & Fitness Feed – Postings about my journeys through diet and exercise dealing with Weight Watchers and yoga primarily.

Philadelphia Local Feed – Postings having to do with Philadelphia or events taking place in Philadelphia

Music Feed – Postings often deal with music and new media, local music stuff and events.

Since I last posted, I am holding steady around 166-167, which is fantastic considering that I have been overindulging a bit, though to be fair, my idea of overindulging has drastically changed. My worst day I rounded out at about 40 points on the Weight Watcher’s method versus my normal 26. Granted, I have an extra 35 points a week for splurging that even at my worst I never burn through let alone the 30-40+ activity points I get through working out. I was playing around with the limits since I had been losing weight while on maintenance, which suggested that something was out of balance. I don’t want to revert to any bad habits, but my appetite has been a little more increased over the past couple of weeks. I think this is probably due to slacking on taking my daily vitamin regiment, which I am trying to get back into the habit of doing. When it comes to vitamins, I do really good for a few months and then slack for a few weeks.

Since my last fitness related post, I am happy to report that I have started taking some yoga classes at Dhyana Yoga (They have locations in Olde City, Center City and West Philly). Much to my own surprise I am really loving the classes. I’ve taken a couple different ones: All Levels Vinyasa, Vinyasa 101, All Levels Kundalini and am taking a 3 week workshop for Abs & Core strengthening. Its funny I think the All Levels Vinyasa was much easier than the Vinyasa 101 class. I still wanna try out their Yin Yoga classes and their Jivamukti ones. The Jivamukti classes are at odd hours that don’t really work well with my schedule, one is on Sunday mornings and one is during the week, but fairly late in the evening.

I’ve also picked up a couple new DVD’s and a book as well. I am so totally loving Shiva Rea’s Yoga Trance Dance DVD. Its so much fun, as it combines free form dance, some kundalini yoga exercises and some more fluid dance like yoga asanas. I always laugh when I’m doing dance workouts because I turn everything into variations of good ole’ goth dances, either swishy or stompy. I guess old habits do really die hard. The segments are much shorter than the Liquid Flow DVD I have of hers and much more suitable for beginners. I really like her DVDs alot. I got an Abs & Core one in the mail from Netflix that I am looking forwards to checking out.

I’ve been exploring the Jivamukti Yoga method created by David Life and Sharon Gannon. I picked up the book and their DVD Transform Yourself with Jivamukti Yoga. The workout is challenging as it includes some amount of backbends, shoulder stands and headstands. I can do backbends pretty well, but my lower/middle back has been hurting for the past couple of weeks so I can’t sustain it too long. It only really hurts when I do things like wheel, cobra or upward facing dog, so I have to modify them a little bit. I’m not a fan of shoulder stands for two reasons, one I end up drowning in my own boobs and two I have a lot of loose skin on my abdomen from losing weight (hence the abs & core focusing lately). I did learn a modification at one of the vinyasa classes I took recently, which helps immensely, by putting a yoga block under the base of your spine. When it comes to headstands, I have to get over the fear of breaking my neck and also the same issues from the shoulder stands apply. There are a couple modifications that I am comfortable doing in the mean time. In any case, I really like Jivamukti Yoga. I’m still reading the book, so far its been focusing on some historic yoga information as well as spiritual, karmic and ethical focuses in ones path towards enlightenment.

Philadelphia Future Salon meeting: July 17th, 2008 6-8pm

Futuristic Cinema: Mash-Ups and Machinima!

The next meeting of the Philadelphia Future Salon will be on July 17th,
2008; we’re not meeting on the first Thursday of the month due to the
holiday.

The topic will be “Futuristic Cinema: Mash-Ups and Machinima!” Modern media
has caused us to rethink everything from business to entertainment. Youtube
has made it possible for anyone to be a star and share their dreams and
visions. Fans now have the technology in their power to find out who would
win in a fight between Star Wars and Star Trek. Major television franchises
such as CSI: New York and The Office are blending episodes with the virtual
world of Second Life. The most famous brands in the world, such as
Coca-Cola, are making short films in virtual worlds and video games (called
machinima) to enhance their advertising campaigns. Traditional businesses
are finding new ways to use these new technologies.

We will have two panelists from the area lead the discussion, with Timothy
Allen moderating.

The first panelist is Peter Decherney, a Assistant Professor of Cinema
Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. His research and teaching focus
on the history of media regulation and on internet policy, specifically the
interaction between Hollywood and Washington. He is the author of Hollywood
and the Culture Elite: How the Movies Became American (Columbia UP, 2005)
and many articles on the Hollywood film industry, on the history of media
regulation, and on fair use and academia, among other topics. In 2006, along
with two colleagues, Decherney successfully petitioned for an exemption to
the Digital Millennium Copyright Act for media professors using clips for
teaching. In addition to Penn, he has taught at Yale University, Johns
Hopkins University, and Tsinghua University (Beijing). He is currently
working on a new book on the history and future of Hollywood and copyright
law. He frequently assigns mashups as coursework.

Our other panelist is Ariella Furman, the first person in her Ukrainian
family to be born in America. She acquired her interest in filmmaking when
she was practically in diapers. She took her skillset with her to Temple
University and became a 2008 graduate with a Film Media Arts degree. Her
story began with her love for music videos. Her videos for east-coast bands
have premiered on outlets such as LCN-TV, Adrenaline Nation TV, MTV Italy,
and more recently the channel Logo, a subsidiary of MTV. She then found her
next passion, machinima, by accident, through an experimental documentary
she made for class. Since then, she has worked with Electric Sheep, Popcha,
SLAgency, and created machinima for Nestle, World Bank, IBM, and others.

Timothy Allen is a virtual worlds enthusiast, Philadelphia area tech
fanatic, and co-moderator of the Philadelphia Future Salon.

Refreshments are provided, and free cocktails will be served after the
session. We look forward to seeing you there!

Location: 1835 Market Street, 15th Floor, at the office of Buchanan,
Ingersoll & Rooney.

Please RSVP to francis.ta…@bipc.com – please email him directly, do not
reply to the entire list, as we try to keep this a very low-volume group.
Thank you!

I am participating on a new media panel coming up in a week focusing on the topic of “Music in the Era of New Media”.

Here is the event information:

Being a musician in the modern era has offered a huge wealth of tools
and opportunities, however, this can also be overwhelming. The same
thing can be said for the modern media business: how do you promote
yourselves in a vast sea of competition? Which tools are effective?
How do you separate your work from the pack? What artists and
businesses have been successful?

And, of course, the most important question: how can I get people to
listen to music, while still having an opportunity to make a living,
and maintaining the quality of my work?

We will be addressing these questions – and many more, hopefully
brought by you. Our panelists include:

John Allers: program director Radio 104.5 WRFF-FM – or better known to
us, the best local supporter of local artists, Clear Channel
Jennifer Vatza: local band manager; new media promoter, Web 2.0
socializer; virtual worlds expert
Darren Morze: local musician (Manic Mirrors) and studio engineer (Plan
B Studios) in both analog and digital
Ben Morgan: Music Director, Millcreek Tavern; Founder, Musictech
mailing list; Past associate of The Future of Music Coalition, Elektra
Records, CDnow

As usual, we will be having a fairly open discussion with the
panelists, not a lecture. We hope to see you Thursday, March 6th,
at our meeting location:

1835 Market Street
14th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19103

To attend, simply drop an email to Frank Taney, our kind sponsor from
Buchanan Ingersoll, & Rooney – francis(d0t)taney(at)bipc(dot)com – if you don’t
have time to register, feel free to show up, but you may have to wait
a few minutes while the front desk contacts us.

We always gather between 5:30pm and 6:00pm EST, and start at about
6:15pm. We’ll have the discussion until about 8pm, and people who want
to join us for a cocktail afterwards at Elephant & Castle at 18th and
Market are welcome.

I have some free time today. I figured that I would update my blog with some random happenings and thoughts.

As it should come as no surprise to anyone that knows me, I am still on a long term hiatus from Second Life. I’ve logged in a couple times over the past month or so. I usually get frustrated by the poor performance issues and promptly log back out without a second thought. It makes me sad to feel such apathy and contempt for something I once loved so much. I thought at first that I was just sick of the drama that stormed through our virtual lives year after year, but I think it runs deeper than that now. I had always been a big supporter of Linden Lab and Second Life. It just got to the point where I could no longer make excuses for a product that barely works on a good day. I just hope that I haven’t become disenfranchised to the point of not ever coming back and/or completely removing my business interests from Second Life.

While on the subject of Second Life, I’d like to extend a belated congratulations to Daniel Terdiman on the pending release of The Entepreneur’s Guide to Second Life. Upon speaking at the Virtuals Worlds Conference in NYC back in March, he asked me to contribute some knowledge and insight on fashion design and content creation in Second Life. On a side note, whilst Google searching my avatar, I see that while I am wholly un-present in Second Life and most Second Life related forums and blogs, that a certain bag lady blogger still has me in her cross hairs questioning how I could possibly contribute anything on content creation since I’ve like never rezzed a prim. For anyone interested, I became a content creator around May 2004 and regularly released new items up until this past year. My main store is in Indigo and I have owned and managed several other malls and boutique locations around Second Life since August 2004.

I am still playing World of Warcraft because tried and true it works and critical functions don’t break after updates. The “lag” when noticeable in capitol cities is almost laughable compared to the walking through molasses lag at any given time in Second Life. It has been a fun experience since I have never been into online games like this before. I am always amazed by the intuitiveness of the User Interface and just how smooth and beautiful the world is at any given time. Sure, it does not have streamed content like Second Life, but I’d sacrifice streamed content in order to never see Missing Image again.

And in other news, I began managing a friends band last month, Trouble Everyday, whom as you may remember performed a show in Second Life back in June hosted by Phreak Radio. I have been enjoying it immensely and life again. I think after nearly four years of being involved in virtual world stuff I just needed to do something real and tangible again,  eventhough we are focusing on interaction with various new media outlets. I’ll be writing more about my adventures on this blog soon enough. I just need to transition it from being 100% Second Life related to being a mix of new media, music and personal stuff.

The piece we filmed last week for our local ABC News was featured last night on the 11 o’clock news right after Lost. The segment was narrated by the interviewer and focused more on Flip than me. I got some face time though and navigated most of the Second Life demo for them. Here is the video link for the piece Right Now on the Net: Second Life.

Flipper and I are now the proud owners of our very own consulting LLC: Peregrine Salon. Not that we are joing the competitive Metaverse development company masses, but we do enough side projects in Second Life that it warranted at least forming an LLC for tax purposes.