GeekSugar

Do You Have A Home On Second Life?

CasaSugar — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 08:02:48 -0700

Second Life is a virtual online user-defined society where users can build houses, businesses, and pretty much anything for their avatars, in addition to buying and selling their creations with real-life currency. The first person person to make 1 million real US $$$ from Second Life was—you guessed it—a real estate developer. What about you?

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Gossip Girl's Second Life Secret

GeekSugar — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 16:00:41 -0700

While we've been enjoying the stylish fashions and gadgets on Gossip Girl - and the fact that the show is about a blogger! - some fans have started enjoying Gossip Girl's neighborhood in Second Life experience called "The Upper East Side."

In case you didn't know, Second Life is a 3D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. It opened to the public in 2003, and is now "inhabited" by millions of residents from around the globe. The Upper East Side community allows you to build and customize your avatar, have a dance party with friends, play games, watch clips and full episodes of the show. From what I can tell, it's much like the Virtual Worlds MTV has set up for shows like The Hills, Newport Harbor and Laguna Beach, only it exists in the Second Life platform.

The virtual Gossip Girl world looks like the set of the television show, with the same streets, the same hot spots, and even the same characters. To try it out you just need to download the software, go through a brief orientation, and start your "second life." Who knew geek was so chic?

To check out more pictures of the Upper East Side community on Second Life, read more

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Do You Pay Attention To Avatars' Bodies And Gender?

GeekSugar — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 08:00:26 -0700

Naturally, I spend a lot of time playing video games and visiting websites that use avatars. I think of them as digital characters, that are human-like, but not necessarily reflective of what I think real people should look like. Aside from cracking a few jokes about the impossible curves of video game vixens - I mean, the Fantastic Four game even put Jessica Alba's body to shame - and the built-in stereotyping, I hardly ever pay attention to avatars.

What's interesting though, is the fact that a recent study showed that androgynous digital personas, ie avatars, are perceived as less trustworthy than ones that are clearly either male or female. It makes me wonder if people honestly find the need to assign gender roles to digital images, or if people are just more accustomed to the exaggerated gender stereotypes that seem to be perpetuated online. According to New Scientist Tech, people typically extend this impression to the person behind the avatar too - meaning avatar design and behavior may have a range of unforeseen psychological influences and that such virtual personas need to be carefully designed to make the right impression.

The issue of trust and personality perception is especially intriguing when you think about the number of people that spend a great deal of time in 3D virtual worlds like Second Life and end up creating avatars to represent themselves and later make virtual friends. Still, not "trusting" an avatar because it's androgynous seems bizarre. Everyone trusts David Bowie, right?
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Do You Participate in Second Life?

GeekSugar — Sat, 12 May 2007 07:03:44 -0700

For those of you who only take light doses of geekdom let me explain: Second Life is a 3-D virtual world that's built and owned by its residents. It opened to the public in 2003, but is now inhabited by more than 6,240,591 people from around the globe, who create avatars of themselves, buy land, spend money, go shopping and do all the other things you might do in the non-virtual world. "From the moment you enter the World you'll discover a vast digital continent, teeming with people, entertainment, experiences and opportunity," says the Second Life website. "Once you've explored a bit, perhaps you'll find a perfect parcel of land to build your house or business."

Currently, the phenomenon is filled with high profile appearances and a rapidly expanding list of residents - last summer Suzanne Vega became the first major recording artist to perform live in Second Life avatar form, American Apparel opened a virtual store, and L'Oreal Paris even held a Miss Second Life beauty contest. It's also home to some controversy. Last week, a ginormous media circus occured after a German TV station alleged there was child pornography in the community. According to reports, the claims were found to be inaccurate (the accused man was 54 and the woman was 27), but nonetheless, the community is back in the public eye.

Now You Can Get A Statuette Of Your Mii In 3D

GeekSugar — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 12:05:08 -0700

Who would have thought that Zach Braff would be such an adorable 3D Mii character (hint: blue T)?!

If you want to bring your own Mii avatar to life (or a fave celeb of course), then check out Fabjectory! This fabulous site can take your online Mii and transform it into either a 3-inch figure for $50 or a 5-inch figure for $100.

All you have to do is take a clear close up pic of your Mii from your TV screen and upload it on their website and voila- your Mii will be made into an incredibly detailed, full color real-life statuette- it will literally be popping off the screen!

Fabjectory can also create 3D models from your SecondLife avatar or from a SketchUp model.

The 13 Most Beautiful Avatars Of Second Life

GeekSugar — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 08:00:08 -0700

No this isn't a post about America's next top avatars contest, but it is about the model-like beauties of Second Life. Based on Andy Warhol's short films: 13 Most Beautiful Women and 13 Most Beautiful Boys comes a serious of canvas mounted portrait prints by the Italian artists Eva and Franco Mattes. Actual Second Lifers originally created these creative avatars. What are your thoughts? Do they scream beautiful in a virtual, digitally enhanced sorta way? Leave your comments below.
[via play-girlz] Want to know more about Play-Girlz's co-editor Ingrid Diaz? Check out my Geeky Girls We Love interview with her.

Jared Leto's Changing Hairstyles Over The Years

PopSugarUK — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 05:00:00 -0700

Jared Leto debuted a new shorter hairstyle this Summer, and it got me thinking about the actor and musician's hair evolution over the years. From his curtains back in 1994 through long locks, cane rows and dyed tips, check out Jared's changing hairstyles over the years, and vote to let me know what you think of each 'do!

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Bad Lieutenant: Good Cop Gone Nuts

BuzzSugar — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:30:49 -0800

Nicolas Cage has said, "There's a very fine line between Method actor and schizophrenic." In Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, he teeters that line maniacally, with an ever-increasing slur and crooked swagger. Cage plays Terence McDonagh, a detective in post-Katrina New Orleans investigating a drug-related murder and his personal threshold for cocaine and heroin.

The first news of Bad Lieutenant was puzzling: famously extreme director Werner Herzog re-imagining a 1992 cult movie, also called Bad Lieutenant, but shifting the action to New Orleans and casting Nic Cage in the Harvey Keitel role opposite his Ghost Rider costar Eva Mendes. Weird.

But in fact, Bad Lieutenant is Herzog's second surprisingly accessible movie in as many years, following 2007's Rescue Dawn. And Cage is brilliant in a role seemingly made for him, so read more.

The noirish, pulpy, desperate, and often hilarious film opens with a good deed: McDonagh dives into a Katrina-flooded jail cell to save a prisoner's life, in the process injuring his back and subsequently getting hooked on Vicodin and then far harder drugs.

As a degenerate cop in a washed-out city, Cage makes Denzel Washington's Training Day villain look like a Boy Scout. He slithers through the streets, confiscating drugs to snort with his prostitute girlfriend (Mendes), hooking up with a drug kingpin played by Alvin "Xzibit" Joiner, and fending off a rising tide of self-created trouble. "Being courteous is really getting in the way of my progress," he croaks before one of his more disturbing moral lapses.

In post-Katrina New Orleans, Herzog has found the perfect setting. He never lets the city look pretty or even charmingly decayed, and he populates it with iguanas and alligators and snakes and fish. At every turn, McDonagh is confronted by cold-blooded animals, as he careens between the call of duty and the cold-blooded instinct of his addiction. It's impossible to ignore the reptilian symbolism, and the effect is perfectly bizarre. Despite its darkest moments, Bad Lieutenant is a remarkably good trip.

Photos Courtesy First Look Studios

PopSugarUK Meets the Me & Orson Welles Cast: Zac Talks Footloose & Finding Seclusion, and Claire Talks Flirting!

PopSugarUK — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:53:19 -0800

Yesterday I was lucky enough to spend an hour with Zac Efron! He and his castmates in Me and Orson Welles, Claire Danes and Christian McKay, talked about their new movie in a Q&A session with UK journalists alongside their director Richard Linklater. Zac looked handsome and casual in a blue t-shirt and jeans, and fiddled with a bottle top on the table while talking, he was pretty self-deprecating, as was Claire who looked gorgeous and was really funny. Look out for more from this session right here next week, but without further ado - here's part one!

Richard, finding Orson must have been the key to the movie?

And once you found your Orson, it was time to find your “Me”?
R – "I was just really lucky that Zac had read the script and liked it and wanted to meet me. You know, Zac was being offered every film in town."
Z - (deadpans) "You were so lucky."
R – "It’s true! It’s never a given, and we sat down, and I was convinced about fifteen seconds in and I felt like I’d found Richard. Like I did when I found Christian. Even though Richard’s only 17 you see it through his eyes, he needed to be a leading man, he needed to go toe to toe with Welles. I just needed that quality that Zac has, that charisma and that kinda presence."

Zac, were you trying to break out from High School Musical box?
Z - "I recognised almost immediately that this was a pretty unique opportunity. I got the phone call that Rick had a script that he’d like me to read, and he wanted to have a conversation about it. And I was… so excited, I remember running home to read the script. And I read it and was pleasantly surprised that the role was pretty big. That’s not exactly what I expected. I was the “Me”, that was pretty cool. I was looking for that opportunity. Not necessarily to change my image or anything. But for a new role, that was a new challenge, and something interesting – and this was it."

To hear why Zac dropped out of Footloose, find out how his efforts to find seclusion on the Isle of Man went, and Claire's opinions on having to flirt with him, just read more.

Claire, your character hovers on the outside of things, organising things…

What was it like to flirt with Zac Efron?
C – (sighs) "Tough. Going." (Zac nods) "I don’t know... it was amazing. First of all the dialogue was very special. It’s very rare to find writing of this quality, very witty and engaging and I had a lot of fun with the flirty slang words and goofy vernacular. And the scenes, I thought, were very tender. And you know, Zac’s amazing."
Z (laughing) – "Yeah, the dialogue made me look really good."
C – "I was delighted to discover how fine an actor he is. And he can move very well. We took some dancing lessons for a brief scene in a dance hall, and that was very humbling. Zac was a much quicker study than I was, my god. A very coordinated guy."
Z – "It was the first time I actually led! It was great!"

Zac on dropping out of Footloose:
Z - "Footloose didn’t happen for a number of reasons, but...you know, I think it just felt like territory that I’d already explored. I felt like I’d already been there before. As opposed to trying something brand new, which is a bit riskier and it was a whole lot scarier, but so much more interesting, I think."

The cast on filming on the Isle of Man:
R – "We had a good time on the Isle of Man, we spent about three weeks working, we were just in the theatre the whole time."
Z – "It was great. No, I didn’t know where it was. I was looking forward to that seclusion. From what I’d heard it was a pretty quiet place, and there weren’t a lot of people there. You know? I can’t tell you how appealing that sounded."
R – "The girls did find out Zac was there and they showed up,"
Z – "Yeah… anyways… I found out there was a whole lot of people there. And we met… most of them. I mean, I felt pretty welcome."
C – "I don’t think anybody has been better received there."
Z – "It was funny, we couldn’t really go outside that much. We couldn’t really leave the theatre… we were there a whole lot. Day and night."
C – "Plus the theatre was literally next door, adjacent to the hotel we were staying in."
Z – "There was a tunnel from the hotel to the theatre."
C – "You didn’t have to go outside from your room to the set."
Z – "I didn’t. Didn’t go outside. It was great."

For more from the interview keep an eye on PopSugarUK next week, where you'll hear more from director and stars, including Brit newcomer Christian McKay.

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PopSugarUK Meets The New Moon Cast Part Four: Taylor on Stunts, Hobbies, Fans and Playing a Female Part!

PopSugarUK — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:55:16 -0800

Taylor Lautner took a break from all those smart suits he's been wearing for premieres and TV appearances and benefit screenings, and wore a casual stripy top and jeans for dinner at BLT in New York City last night. I was lucky enough to meet Taylor when he was in London last week for the New Moon press conference and UK fan event and he revealed all about stunts, hobbies and taking on a female role! Check out all of the gossip from Taylor, Robert and Kristen in my series of interviews and read on to find out more from Jacob Black himself.

On doing his own stunt work for the film:
Taylor: "The stunt work was a lot of fun. I was really glad that I had the opportunity to do a lot more physical stuff. I'd never ridden a dirt bike before so that was kind of scary at first. I had to go through some training so I could make the five seconds of me on the dirt bike look cool. There was a lot of sequences and Chris was really open to some random ideas."
Director Chris Weitz: "I was scared! Taylor does everything he can to endanger his life physically while shooting a movie. Frankly I was just closing my eyes and praying."
Taylor: "He was very supportive." [laughs]
Chris: "The only thing that he didn't do was what the insurance company refused to allow him to do."

To find out what Taylor had to say about how he spends his downtime, how he feels about the fans, and his interest in playing a female character, just read more.

On whether martial arts is still his major hobby:
"It used to be. I haven't done it in a long time. I would definitely be rusty."
On what he does in his downtime now:
"It's hard to tell because we haven't had much of it in a while, but I do like playing football. And just spending time with the family and friends."
On whether the fan support still surprises him:
"I guess after Twilight we expect anything, but it's still a constant surprise to me. I'm always surprised by the fan reactions and the amount of fan support we have behind us, just because none of us expected it when we were filming Twilight. Coming into New Moon it was a little different feeling, but yeah it's great to know we have that kind of support behind us."
On which other character from the saga they would play:
Kristen: "I would love to play Alice. She has my favourite back story of all the Cullens and I would love to play around with her power. I would love to have the visions, I think it's really interesting."
Robert: [looks at Taylor] "I've always wanted your part, even when we're doing scenes together." [laughs]
Taylor: "Is Bella an option? [laughter] I would actually love to get inside Bella's... mind! There's a lot of weird things going on in there and I would love to experience that."

Taylor dressed as Bella is something I would love to see! He also told me all about how he got his hot body through exercise and an extreme eating regime, and chatted with Molly too. Remember to read all my cast interviews and check out my review of the film.

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