The GNUbie store is the brainchild of Jai Nomad who has been a Second Life resident since July 2003. The place is simply packed with L$0 and L$1 items, with consistently high quality. The two level building houses the work of residents both recent and far-from-recent; even the venerable Toy LaFollette still has her work displayed here.

For the most part the store is laid out in such a way that even folks who have a little trouble with their camera controls can still use it fairly well and there is a wide range of interesting goods to be picked up here, some of which can be modified, and many of which are transferable.

Drum roll, please: the date and time of the registration of the millionth user was October 18th, 2006, at 08:05:45 AM, SL Time. The one millionth resident's name is Farley Atlantis, and I'll be contacting him/her soon for an interview (if he/she will have me!), but I know that you're all waiting for the name of the winning resident.

Interestingly enough, only 3 people guessed the date correctly. With a prediction of 8:30 AM, the winner is ...

*bated breath*

Mystra Hyde!

Mystra, congratulations! I'll be contacting you soon with your winnings, and an offer to have an interview up on the site, which you may of course decline. If any of you know Mystra, let him/her know he/she's won!

I'd like to thank Torley, Robin, and Jim Linden for providing the precise date and time, and all of our wonderful prize suppliers: Coal Nelson, Six Kennedy, Jakkal Dingo, Trinity Serpentine, Mistress Midnight, and Ordinal Malaprop! Please patronize these artists; they make wonderful things! Thank you all for your entries, you made this contest fun! *tail madly wagging*

Okay, I know everyone's excited to know who's donating prizes, and what they are. As it stands, here is the list:

• Coal Nelson donates a 'Personal Comet' head orbiter (if you haven't seen one of these, they're really cute! Come find me in-world for a look)
• Mistress Midnight donates something from her personal line of clothing (details to be determined by Mistress)
  
• Six Kennedy donates a 400L gift certificate to Gurl6 (her fashion and hairstyle store)
• Our own Aimee donates both a 1000L credit voucher to Preen and a few unreleased Preen items (to be determined by Aimee)
  
• Jakkal Dingo donates 2 800L gift certificates to The Werehouse (Like my werewolf av? I got it from Jakkal!)
  
• Tippy Fizz donates a portrait session in her photography studio (She does fine work, no lie)
  
• Trinity Serpentine donates a 2 hour set from the Radio Radio DJ of the winner's choice (though the DJ requested must either be off-schedule or this can take place during their scheduled set)
• Ordinal Malaprop donates a new object of her design (she's keeping it a secret!)

And, again, I'll offer to interview the winner if they're interested. So there you have it, a drool-worthy list of prizes if ever I've seen one. And I've never seen one, so I'm proud to be the first! Thank you to everyone who's graciously donated these prizes and for being so generous with their time! If you would like to donate a prize to this contest, you may either IM me in-world, or send me mail at akelatal@gmail.com. Good luck to the winner!

As I understand it, creating hair is a challenging business. Never having tried it myself (except for the horrifying turn of events hereafter referred to as "The Incident" -- long story), I don't claim to know what issues the process entails. However, I do know good work when I see it. For this post, I've interviewed Six Kennedy and her partner Dominik Bauer, the minds behind Gurl 6, a successful line of avatar hairstyles. Six and Dom were very easy to talk with, no egos involved at all. I heartily recommend checking out their wares!

Note: This interview has been edited for clarity, and in the interest of expediency. Dialogue has not been altered in any other way; these are the words of the interviewees.

Six Kennedy: Hi Akela!

SL Insider: Hi! Nice to finally meet you!

Dominik Bauer: Hi, Akela!

SL Insider: Hi Dominik!

Six Kennedy: And this is my partner Dominik; he runs the man shop and the animations/poses. He also is a big part of the girl part behind the scenes.

SLI: His secret's safe with me.

Six Kennedy: LOL I don't mean like that! He helps me with textures, although I've been known to make him try on a wig or two!

SLI: This is a huge empire of hair you've built.

Six Kennedy: My friend calls it a little hair utopia.

SLI: So, first of all, how did you come to Second Life?

Six Kennedy: A friend of mine told me about the game, I had tried TSO (The Sims Online) before. Once I saw what you could do with your avatars here I loved it and stayed.

SLI: How long did it take you to start doing your own hair? ...so to speak.

Six Kennedy: I had been playing for 6 months, just mostly hanging out in sandboxes watching other friends build and learning basic building, but about 6 months in is when I started actually creating my own hair. I always had millions of ideas for styles in my head and loved the hair out there that already existed; I just wanted MORE of it! That's why I started making it.


More after the break...