Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Squeee!

My event (and all of the St. Patricks Day events -- I only did the hunt) got written up in the BBC! Squee!

Dublin St. Patrick's Day Treasure Hunt -- Take 2

The Dublin Treasure Hunt has proved to be so successful that we are extending it. Here are the extension rules.

1. We are extending the contest until Friday, March 21 at Midnight SLT. So you have until then to mail your answers to DublinTreasureHunt@gmail.com.

2. Those that won the cash prize this weekend still get that 20k pot to split -- in other words there is still ample incentive to get all 30 answers in by midnight SLT tonight.

3. We are adding another, smaller pot for people to try for until Friday. More details will come as we figure them out.

4. If you already mailed in your answers and you didn't get thirty right, you were mailed an opportunity to continue looking.

If you have questions please email me at viviannedraper at gmail.

Good luck!

TAKE OFF YOUR ATTACHMENTS!!!!

Geesh people have a heart. Its the Relay for Life. Take off your attachments so we can move and buy stuff huh?

Ookami Ningen St. Patrick's Day Freebies!

Ookami Ningen has some nifty stuff free or dollarbie for St. Patrick's Day!


First is the Harajuku Punk in vibrant green. This is free until 12:00 a.m. tonight and at that time it will go to that great big place in the sky where all green things go to live after St. Patty's day is over. This is a never released FREE limited edition set. You can find it inside the Ookami Ningen store.


Next is the Parasol. Also created for the St. Patrick's Day Treasure Hunt in Dublin, this snazzy little number is a gift you get for joining the Ookami Ningen group. The group is subscribomatic so it won't take a separate group spot.

Last but not least is this cute little shamrock pillow dollarbie. I don't have a picture but its a little pillow in the shape of a shamrock and it is, of course, green. You can find it and the Harajuku inside the Ookami Ningen main store.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

The Dublin St. Patrick's Treasure Hunt has begun!

Hey folks, I was up till 3am putting out clue signs but it is finished and the Dublin St. Patrick's Day Hunt has begun. Its pretty easy, you hunt for clues (which are easy to find), you answer the clues, you email the answers, you get a prize. All you have to do to get a prize is get ONE answer right. If you want a larger prize, you have to answer more right. If you want cash, you have to get them all right. A L$20,000 pot will be split among all those who get all 30 clues right. You have until Tuesday morning at 12:01 a.m. SLT to find the answers to the clues. I'm going to post the official rules right after this nifty graphic to break up the big wall o' text.



!!RULES!!

1. Thirty clues have been placed around the three Dublin Sims. Look for the special "Dublin in SL" signs around the three Dublin Sims. They could be anywhere but they are not hidden. They will be large and should be easy to spot. It is not our intent to hide these signs in any way. And just to be nice and give you all extra help, they are usually near a place where you can find the answer to a different clue. The clue signs look like this:



2. Figure out the clues and write down the answers.

3. Email the answers to DublinTreasureHunt@gmail.com.
. Include your **Avatar Name** in your email so that we can award your prizes.
. **Number** your answers to match the number of the clues you are solving.
. All emails will be kept confidential and deleted after prizes are awarded.

4. Prizes:
There are three tiers of prizes depending on how many questions you get right:

1-10 answers right -- The Wee Prize
11-29 answers right -- The Wee Prize and The Big Box of Cool Stuff
30 answers right -- The Wee Prize, The Big Box of Cool Stuff, and a Cash (Lindens) Bonus (the amount of the cash bonus will be determined by how many win)
(in addition there is a separate wee prize hidden somewhere in one of the Dublin Sims -- as a matter of fact, finding that prize is the answer to one of the clues.

5. Our administrators will log in several times over the weekend to send prizes out. They will not be online 24-7 or even close to that nor is there a schedule for when they are online. Prizes will be sent to your avatar name by or before midnight SLT Wednesday, March 19.

6. You may only enter once so please check your answers before mailing them in.

7. All the answers can be found in in Second Life (in search in the parcel description, or inside the structure, on the sim... but in SL somewhere) or on the Dublin in SL website. There may be other places where you can find the answers (i.e. google, wikipedia, personal knowledge, books, etc), however, the Dublin Sims and website contain the final answer. If your answer doesn't match the answer we have -- no matter if we are wrong or right -- then your answer will not be counted as a correct answer.

8. The prize packages are all the same within their respective tiers. If you can't use an item (for instance if you are male and there are women's shoes in the package) just throw them out. We will not make subsitutions. The prize we give you is all there is.

9. The Hunt begins Saturday, March 15 at 12:01am somewhere between CST and SLT and ends Monday, March 17 at midnight SLT. Submissions mailed after 12:01am, Tuesday, March 18 will not be accepted (even if we have gone to bed and left the clues out -- you have to mail it before Tuesday, March 18, at 12:01 a.m.)

10. It could take up to 24 hours for you to receive your prize if your entry is received late at night on preceeding a weekday (in otherwords Sunday or Monday late). Please be patient.

That is the end of the rules. We hope you have fun finding the clues and the answers and exploring the Dublin Sims.

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh! (A Saint Patrick's Day Blessing upon you!)

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

St. Patrick's Day in Dublin

So you didn't think there would be nothing going on in Dublin this weekend did you? You didn't think Ham and Sitearm would sit idly by, leaving you to celebrate this most Irish of all holidays completely on your own? I certainly hope you didn't think that because there is SO much going on this weekend in Dublin that I scarcely know where to begin.

First off... there are two new Dublin Sims opening. And the reason I tell you this is first is because secondly, I have been contracted to design and run a treasure hunt over all three sims. The hunt starts this Saturday morning at 12:01 a.m. and runs until Tuesday morning at 12:00 a.m. And we have prizes -- OMG do we have prizes.




In seeking prizes for this event, I not only went to clothing designers but tried to put some varied items in the prize package as well. So there is all kinds of nifty stuff for you should you get a prize and just about everyone will. The rules will be posted Friday evening and will be on selected signs around Dublin at the start of the hunt.

But wait! That's not all! There is the possibility of a cash (lindens) prize! The amount of lindens is not set yet as it depends on how many people get every clue correct. We'll be splitting an as-yet-undetermined pot of lindens donated by Ham Rambler amongst all the winners. AND I'll be reprising my Celtic Muse DJ show at the Art Park in Dublin 3 on Saturday, from 8-10 a.m. SLT to kick off the hunt.

But wait! That's still not all! Because a hunt is not all that's happening.

The complete list of events (and OMG there are a lot of them) happening in and around the Dublin sims can be found here. So check it out and mark your schedule accordingly! I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of you there.

New from DMMDI: Soda Pop Candy Shoes

Oh dear gods save me. I'm really happy Chari is my friend and just lays these shoes on me or I'd have to go buy them all. Every time she showed me a new color I was like "GIMMIE!" Yeah Yeah I'll be getting review copies out real soon now. In the meantime, check this out:


Black Licorice


Bubblegum Soda


Red Licorice


Root Beer


St. Patty's Day (part of the prize package for the St. Patty's day hunt this weekend in all three Dublin sims)

I'm waiting for Chari to mail me on how much these are but knowing Chari, the price will be pretty good and if you are like me, and hate to wait go NOW to The Devil Made Me Do It store in Brithys. Once you get there I dare you to decide on just one color.

Ookami Ningen Harajuku Punk

I wanted to wait a while to blog about these so all the "newness" had gone away and I could talk about the awesomeness that is the Harajuku Punk outfit from Ookami Ningen. First, as you can see from the pictures, they are ever so stylish.




But what may not be immediately apparent about these is that the fur textures, aside from being completely 100% hand drawn, are not recolored in Second Life. Zorena makes a different texture for each color, usually highlighted a bit differently and drops it on only certain faces of each prim. This is why you get a full, natural look with the fur from Ookami Ningen and it doesn't look like someone took a spray paint can to the fur. Each color has been individually retextured and re-assembled. This is very difficult and time consuming and therefore you don't see it often.




Another thing I wanted to draw your attention to is the velvet belt, again hand drawn textured and colored in photoshop and not recolored in Second Life. Its why, if you look closely, you can almost see yourself reaching out to touch the velvet and feel its texture (natch!) under your skin.



Each set includes a soft flexible fur prim jacket that comes in 5 parts, the anti-glitch jacket that comes on two different layers, a cute plaid belted mini, anti-glitch skirt shorts and finally a pair of soft fuzzy leg warmers with an anti-glitch pair of socks. The leg warmers are a great way to dress up a pair of chunky shoes or the foot part of most boots to make them look like fur topped boots. You can find them only at the main store of Ookami Ningen. Just hit the SLURL here or the one on the right hand navigation bar OR just use search in-world. Each set is modify, copy and no transfer and sells for 300L.