Michael Jackson tribute t-shirt

As a tribute to the recently passed-away Michael Jackson, I created a simple t-shirt with an image of the King of Pop, together with the text "I'm sad". Just in case you missed it, it's a variation on the title of the famous song "Bad" ("I'm Bad, I'm Bad") and the typography was borrowed from the CD cover.

Bad taste to sell these shirts? I don't think so... For a Lady Diana, Nelson Mandela or Mother Teresa, I would have donated the money to an appropriate charity, but for one of the biggest money makers of the music industry, I don't see any reason for that.

Update: Xstreet removed my t-shirt: "It appears you're using anothers intellectual property without permission. Please remove "Michael Jackson" from your item listing". Strange... I still see a lot of other Michael Jackson t-shirts on Xstreet...

Update2: OK, now all the other Micheal Jackson shirts are removed from XStreet too... If you want one, it's still available in my store.

Funny video...

Mister Rahja made a funny YouTube video "Dennis Dances the Grid", in which Dennis Kurtz dances through ten sections of the K-Grid:

Hehehe... nice promotion of my clothes :-) But uh... is this t-shirt really appropriate for the general YouTube public? :-)

New K-Grid shop

The K-Grid team is soon going to redo the FreeBee Island, so everything there has to go (at least temporary). So I built a new shop on Gondwana13, the sim I was already using as a sort of "home". No big surprises here: it's an exact duplicate of my main store in Second Life (on the Kola sim). Yeah... I was a bit lazy and I still like my SL shop building.

Some products removed from K-Grid

Upon request of the K-Grid team, I removed some of my products from my freebee shop on K-Grid. K-Grid is growing, is attracting a broader audience and the freebee island is probably not the right place to confront unprepared newcomers with some rather "explicit" designs :-) Like my shotacon t-shirts, the "anatomically correct" poster for my skin and the poster for my "weenie" that does not leave much to the imagination :-). The K-Grid might be promoted during the upcoming SL6B celebration, so it's better not to stretch the limits too far...

I will probably open another store on Gondwana13 and some of the removed products might be available there for those who seek them.

Wet and dry undie

Just as with the wet t-shirt, I added a "dry" version to the "wet" undie.

Wet and dry t-shirt

On request of several customers, I made a "dry" version of the "wet" t-shirt. So you can jump into the pool with a dry shirt and come out with a wet one :-) Of course, you will have to change shirts manually. The dry version is now included in the set when you buy the wet one. If you already bought a wet shirt and want to have the dry one too, just let me know.

By the way, dry versions of the wet shorts and wet sport shorts already exist and are being sold separately.

Main store restyle

OK, here's a completely irrelevant news item :-) Yesterday, I restyled the outside facade of my main store a little. Once the building was made in a great hurry when the old Boy's Place Mall closed and I needed a new outlet urgently. So I threw together something with a minimal number of prims that had enough wall-space to hang all my sales posters. But from the outside, it was just a big ugly concrete monster :-) Yesterday, I experimented a little with different textures and this is what came out... One might describe it as a blending between contemporary shapes and materials and traditional Japanese elements in the form of windows that resemble the "shoji" doors that are found in traditional Japanese houses. Mmm, that might also characterize my products :-) By the way: nothing has changed on the inside.

Black leather shorts updated

My black leather shorts always have been a bit on the short side. Yesterday I created a slightly longer version that just touches the knees (instead of being well above the knee as the old one). I kept the old one: it's just a matter of taste which one you prefer. I also updated the slightly boring poster (with only a closeup) to a more lively one (by the way, I made that one on the S.I.C. sim, I like the dark urban atmosphere).

More wet stuff...

My wet shorts are quite popular, so I decided to make some more wet stuff for all your beach and pool fun :-) This one is actually a bit naughty: it's semi-transparant undie and something shines through :-) Not for the shy... :-)

It comes in two versions: as "pants" and as "underpants". They are exactly the same, but you can wear the "underpants" version under your normal shorts or pants, so that you can easily take them off. On the other hand, the "pants" version might be practical if you use the underpants layer for other purposes, such as tatoos or body oil (like I do).

Note: this undie is rather low cut: if you wear it with a normal t-shirt, part of your belly remains visible. This has some charms, but if you don't like that, you should use some "jacket" type of t-shirt.

Here is the other wet thing I made: a wet tshirt. This one also comes in two versions: a regular "t-shirt" that is short, and a "jacket" version that is slightly longer. The last one fits with the wet undie above.

The "jacket" version unfortunately shows some vague seam line between the top and bottom part. I currently don't have the tools to make it perfectly seamless.

I survived a ban...

Last Friday, my smallest Second Life shop at a friend's place in Dallows was visited by a Linden (acting on a complaint?)... Result: almost all my products (even my shop sign!) were returned and my account was disabled :-( Since not a single word of explanation was given, I filed a support ticket and asked what happened and why. The same day, I received an email with a long quote from the TOS:

This email is notification that Linden Lab has terminated your access to the Second Life virtual world due to severe or repeated violations of the Second Life Terms of Service or Community Standards. (...) Under our Community Standards policy, real-life images, avatar portrayals, and other depictions of sexual or lewd acts involving or appearing to involve children or minors are not allowed within Second Life.

Now com'on... "sexual or lewd acts"? "severe or repeated violations"? I never received any warnings, so it can't be "repeated", so it must be "severe". OK, there are minors on my posters (hehe, it's me), but never anything sexual... OK, maybe some shota (manga) tshirts are a bit naughty, but those are just funny drawings.

Anyway, I did the only thing I could do: send in an appeal. I wrote a friendly and cooperative request, although I didn't have much trust that it would help. Much to my surprise, I received an email the next day: Linden Labs reviewed my products and they decided to lift my ban. They wrote:

We would ask that you refrain from using what appears to be underage children for modelling potentially sexual items in the future.

OK, sounds fair enough to me. I was not aware of offering any "potentially sexual items", but if a Speedo or undie can be regarded as one, then I will just redo some of the sales posters with some older avatar.

The only thing I feel uncomfortable with is that I still don't fully understand it. How can I be sure that I'm safe now? Don't get me wrong: I'm fully willing to cooperate and comply to the TOS, it's only the subjectiveness of it that worries me. Linden Labs: please give me a warning next time...

K-Grid "sales" statistics

For about a month, I have a freebee "shop" in K-Grid (on the FreeBee Island). As all my products are free, sales are booming, many people grab almost everything in my shop! (well, I would have done the same...). So far I "sold" 2333 products!

Above are some statistics. Not surprisingly, the most popular items are those that are popular in SL too, like the Adidas sport shorts, white shorts, wet shorts.

Also the sneakers do quite well, although they are not really high-quality: it's was just a quick fix because I needed some for myself. Same applies to the boy skin (also nor perfect) and, ahum..., the weenie :-) (I also "needed" one myself.. hehehe...).

If you like my products and you (still) have a Second Life account, feel free to visit my store there. Any donations are also welcome of course :-)

More Speedo's...

New Speedo's for the summer...

It's getting summer in my part of the world, so time for the beach, the pool etc. :-) So here are some of my newer products: several sets of Speedo's in different colours. Most of the Speedo's you see in SL are just flat and plain, without much depth or realism, I did my best to include some natural wrinkles, some shades and some highlights that suggest a shiny or wet material.

To be honest, they are not 100% perfect yet. The crotch area is very difficult to work with and with certain poses, you can still see some small imperfections high on the inner leg. It must be a single pixel or something that gets stretched sometimes, but I haven't found the pixel yet. But don't worry, you hardly see it...

First Post :-)

OK, after everyone in the world already has a blog, I finally created one for myself... I plan to use this space to inform you about new products that I made (and sell) in Second Life (TM) and K-Grid, as well as some other news and thoughts that might be interesting enough for others to read.