Conclusion to our two week charity drive is tonight!

Details on the event at the end of this post!

Preface: For those who don’t already know, my wife (SL’s own Shai Delacroix of Casa Del Shai) and I (Kriss Lehmann of Botanical) both live in Manila, Philippines,  a city that was recently devastated by Typhoon Ketsana (or Ondoy, as it was called here).  We were extremely lucky and escaped the brunt of the typhoon’s effects, but so many others were not so lucky. Countless people lost their homes, some their lives. Pets, livestock, nothing was spared.  The aftermath of the heavy flooding left by Ondoy was terrible , and it’s impact will be felt for a long time in this region.

In order to help, my wife and I joined forces with Miabella Foxley (who is so much more prepared and experienced with mobilizing the SL community) and began distributing donation kiosks to all willing hosts to begin the process of collecting funds to donate to the Red Cross Philippines to begin a two week typhoon relief fund drive.  As badly as we wanted to immediately run out and buy supplies, many others had the same idea, and for the past couple weeks, stocks in our local stores have been extremely low.  We hope by donating to the Red Cross, we can do what we can for shelters to be built, supplies from better stocked areas be purchased, and mobile water distribution stations to be erected.

In addition to the donated funds, my wife and I are donating half of the Botanical and Casa del Shai Second Life earnings for the duration of the drive to the cause.

Second Life community response has so far been overwhelming and I am looking forward to publishing the final numbers of the fund drive.  I have seen a small part of the numbers, and it looks to be truly impressive.

Tonights Event!

As a wrap up event for the fund drive, Bethany Heart (owner of the Pemberly sim in Second Life) and Phemie Alcott (SL performer and owner of The Firefly Cafe have agreed to arrange and host a 10 hour Typhoon Relief Benefit Concert.  An amazing list of live Second Life performers have agreed to donate all tips generated to the fund, and many great Second Life stores have also donated items specially priced for the event, the results of which will also be donated 100%.  Participating stores include Addict, Aitui, Aoharu, Bohica, *Boom*, Botanical, Doux Petit Dahl, Duboo, Kenzie Co, Lelutka, The Loft, M. Fox, Minettes, Miseria, Modd G, Mudhoney, !ohmai, Pididdle, Pixel Mode, [[Shade Throne]], Silhouette, [skream], <SMP> and even more!

The event is going on AS I WRITE THIS at The Firefly Cafe on Pemberly.  I’ve heard some terrific music and seen some VERY cool things for sale.  For my part, I have put together an exclusive package for the event, called the Super Mega Copy Halloween Pack, including (all copyable) Hanging cobwebs, Spiderweb Groundcovers, Pumpkins and the newly released Split Rail Fence.  All Copyable, Proceeds directly for charity, and for tonight only… $L750.

NOTE: location should be “Pemberley/237/130/26″ SLURLS are updated!

Head over to The Firefly Cafe on Pemberly, pick up some terrific items, and listen  to some of the best live SL musicians around!

Update! The show was an amazing success, with $L411100 donated in tips alone. Amazing. Bethany has told me that she intends to keep the vendors up until midnight, SLT so you have a little more time to come by and check out all the great items people have contributed to the cause!

 

Finally! A new Release!

Quiet and unassuming, the humble country fence would never have crossed my mind as something to create for Straylight or release for Botanical.  Landscaping is Landscaping however, and even the things you don’t suspect can make a big impact in your landscaping designs.  With that in mind, I humbly present to you the Botanical – Split Rail Fence (Aged).

A carefully detailed, rustic wooden fence in kit form.

Included in this product is:
1 fence section – 2 prims
2 corner sections – 5 prims each
2 end pieces with stones – 3 prims each
2 collapsed end pieces – 2 prims each

All pieces are copy/mod so one kit will go a very long way.

I pride myself in releasing only the best content I can in Second Life. Every product I provide to the public through Botanical is a product that I personally use and love.

I hope you will love it as well!

You can see and purchase the fence in Second Life at Botanical at Straylight, or purchase/give as a gift on Xstreet.

 

Finally! A new post!

No, you aren’t imagining things! The 2009 season for Botanical and Straylight was postponed indefinitely for a few first life happenings and events, not the least of which involved getting married, prolonged visits from family and a creative burnout early in the year.  No worries, everything is fine, it’s just proof that focusing too narrowly on one aspect of life will cause other aspects to suffer.  This year has seen a newfound balance in priorities, a lot of inspiration and a lot of work that, while not evident immediately to fans of Botanical and Straylight, will add up to some large changes and some impressive releases later in the year.

All my love,

Kriss

 

New Release: Mid Winter Oak

I’m pleased to announce the release of a new winter tree for Botanical, the Mid-Winter Oak. This tree has a rich brown bark texture, with newly fallen snow clinging to it’s surface.  The bare branches show it’s very last autumn leaves strugling to hold on, as the winter season sets in.

This tree includes an additional two prim root set, also with snow, to be used at your disclosure, as well as two shadow prims, one suitable for snowy terrain, and one for grass.

I’m very proud of this release, and I hope it finds a place on your land

Mid Winter Oak is available at the Botanical store starting at L$150 and on XstreetSL starting at L$175

Seasons Greetings!

Botanical: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Straylight/127/104/24
XstreetSL: transfer version
XstreetSL: copy version

 

Ephemeral

Poid Mahovlich pointed me over to Second Life composer Dizzy Banjo’s blog, where Dizzy documents the short machinima “Ephemeral”, a haunting audio/visual tale co-written by Dizzy and Poid, filmed on the Princeton University sim (designed by Poid), and using apparently all Botanical Green Fir trees for landscaping.  It is a very beautiful film, and I am honored to even have been mentioned in the credits!

Link to “Ephemeral”

Link to Princeton Aspire sim in Second Life (requires the Second Life client)

 

EXEMPLARY Customer Service and Integrity in a Second Life business(Botanical).

“…I wanted everyone to know that Botanical not only makes great products, but they back it up with customer service that is just as wonderful.”

I am thrilled with this glowing post by Belial Foulsbane about the customer service at Botanical.  The full post can be found on the SL™ forums (may require logging in to view).

 

Unfortunate Situation

It’s come to my attention that several people have approached a Second Life content creator by the name of Vooner Voom with questions as to his integrity as a creator.

These questions started after my Halloween release that included some spooky trees with faces on them.  Mr Voom also has a similar offering, which was in fact released before mine.  Unknown to me, however was how closely our design choices were in our respective releases.

I have spoken at length with Mr. Voom, and we are both convinced that our ideas were seperate and original creations that happened to share a similiar theme.

Mr. Voom is a very creative and highly original content creator, and I have personally appologized to him about the questions to his integrity, and we would both like to assure everyone who has thought to accuse him or myself of any malicious intent… this was simply a case of two ideas ideas that in execution share superficial resemblence to each other.

Anyone who knows of my work and my past dealings with content theft issues should know that I do not take accusations like this lightly, and I hope this will post will officially put any question as to the originality of Mr. Voom’s work to rest.

I also gave the following to Mr. Voom in notecard form to be passed to anyone else who thought to question him:

“Most Sincere Apologies from Kriss Lehmann of Botanical

Dear Vooner Voom,
First of all, I would like to like to express my deepest apologies for any questions that you may have received regarding your Halloween themed tree or questions as to your integrity as a content developer.

I am sure that your themed tree was in fact created well before my own, and I assure you that any similarities in style are purely cooincidental and were independant design choices made to fit the theme of the tree:

dark bark
shadowed ghost features in the trunk
branches resembling hands
skeletal branch tips

These design choices were obviously made by both of us, and I want to assure you that I had no intention of creating something that would throw either you or me in a questionable light.

Please distribute this card to anyone who has any doubt about the original design of your tree.

Sincerest appologies to a fellow content creator,
Kriss Lehmann
Owner of Botanical”

 

Faxed to Linden Lab: DMCA NOTIFICATION

I wish to report what I feel in good faith is an instance of Copyright Infringement. The infringing material appears on your service.

My items that I believe have been infringed upon are in particular:

* – Botanical – Emerald Forest Tree 1
* – http://slurl.com/secondlife/Straylight/138/87/24
* – ‘creator’ name: Kriss Lehmann

The infringing items are:
* – All trees on simulator
* – http://slurl.com/secondlife/Delicious%20Prospect/228/222/46
* – ‘creator’ name: Sephiroth Lusch

I have a good faith belief that the use of the material that appears on your service is not authorized by myself (the copyright owner), my agent, or by operation of law.

I declare under the perjury laws of the United States of America that this notification is true and correct.

*update*
The original notification was for a first set of trees that also used my sculpt textures. Those were removed by the group owner who was renting the Sim, only to be replaced by new trees, this time not with my sculpts, but still using tthe stolen textures. I’m leaving my DMCA report to stand for these as well.

At the same time I was on the sim documenting the trees, KatanaBlade Anubis, Samurai Estates Founder, was also there, having Sephiroth remove textures that were stolen from her builds on Samurai Island.  I would recommend banning this person from all estates, if you value your own content.

 

More Machinima!

Nicely done machinima with an extremely epic soundtrack, all that is missing is a *movie voice* and would have thought it was a trailer for 2008’s summer blockbuster!

Check it out here

 

A very touching tribute to someone passed.

My friend Eshi Otawara showed me this extremely touching tribute to her passed husband that she made in Straylight. Be sure to read her note under the video *wipes tear*

Click to view video here