jayshaffer.com » Second Life

The Radio Is Groovin’!

Jay Shaffer — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:18:38 +0000

Tune-in to Radio Groove

After many months of effort to set up a legal internet radio station, I’ve finally succeeded! Thanks to finding a way to legally licensing the music I play through LoudCity.com.
I’m proud to announce RadioGroove.org is on the air!

Radio Groove is broadcasting 24/7 completely commercial free. Radio Groove is even available for your land or club in Second Life.

Radio Groove features eclectic Jazz and electronic groove music, including Latin Jazz, Dub, Brazilian, Ambient and Down-tempo, Blues, R ‘n B and even Contemporary Lounge. Hopefully you’ll find some music to love or love by on Radio Groove.

Radio Groove is almost completely listener supported and I depend on your support to meet my monthly expenses. So please give Radio Groove a listen and donate, every cent helps.

Thanks!

A Time to Teach

Jay Shaffer — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 19:05:19 +0000

I’m really excited that I will be teaching four different classes this semester at Front Range Community College. In the past I’ve only taught two classes at any particular time, so this is going to be a challenge. Fortunately I’m passionate about all the subjects. Tuesday evenings I’ll be teaching sound design, Thursday morning I’ll be teaching Video editing I useing Final Cut Pro, Friday afternoon it’s Music Technology and Recording, and I wrap-up the week with Photoshop I on Saturday afternoons. While this adds up to about 14 and a half hours in the classroom, throw in a 30 minute commute each way and class preparation, the actual time I spend on the classes ends up almost being a full-time job. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite pay like a full-time job. But in today’s economy any job is a good one in my book.
There is always the argument that those that can’t do, teach. I, of course, have to disagree, I’m still running my video and web business in addition to teaching and when you run your own business there is really no time-off. so I’m essentially doing two full time jobs. And still try to find some time to do some fun stuff like making music and DJing in Second Life.
Speaking of Second Life the college does own a space there, and a group of us are exploriing ways to utilize virtual worlds for education. This is a rich area and I’m really excited to be a part of it…in my spare time.

Pennies For Pixels

Jay Shaffer — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:26:41 +0000

Finally got around to posting some items on the SL Exchange site. SL Exchange is an external Website that allows people to search your Second Life items that are for sale. So I’ve got a Japanese tea house and some furniture for sale through SLex. The tea house goes for 500 lindens which is about $2 US. And the Funiture goes for half that. So what am I really selling? If you are in SL, You know that in reality they are nothing more than bits that render as pixels that are little cartoon objects within the game world. But What I’m really selling is my time and skill to create those objects. I’ve created quite a few objects and sold them for fairly high prices by SL standads. My custom Formula SL race cars go for 10,000 Lindens ( about $30) a lot in SL terms but figure I probably put in 50 hours mopdeling the car and then another 5 hours in each custom texture and it boils out to pennies an hour. Same way with my DJ gigs in SL I make on average 1500 Lindens for a two hour set, and I put in anothe half hour preparing my set, So that boils out to about $2 an hour.

Don’t get me wrong I’m doing well in Second Life terms, I manage to make enough that (unlike most) I don’t have to pay to play the game.

But what confuses me is that in Second Life, My avatar VJ Shojo is a quite successful entrepreneur but none of that seems to spill over to RL(Real Life).

Busy Losing Money

Jay Shaffer — Mon, 19 May 2008 20:29:43 +0000

The hard cold fact that I made more money in the game Second Life, than in real life this week is kinda sobering. It’s not like I haven’t been working, I just haven’t been working for real money.
Last week, I wrote and edited a four page proposal for a producer job with a cable sports network and did a Keynote presentation for the same proposal ( the first time I worked with Keynote.)
I did both stereo mix and (my first real) surround mix for “The Fence.” “The Fence” is a three minute trailer for an indie film project. I offered to work on the project pro-bono with the understanding that I will get paid to do the real film. I was originally “hired ” on as sound editor. But I became more deeply involved in the post production process and now I’m credited as Post-Production Supervisor. This is because I designed the DVD art work and put together the DVD project, also last week. Oh, and I shuffled the project back and forth to the colorist (the guy that color-corrects the video.) You can see “The Fence” trailer at: http://riseandflyproductions.com/

I also recorded and published a new podcast about the Zoom H4 recorder on the MacAudioGuy.com site, and updated the CSS on this site. Worked on my Linkedin Profile and Twittered a couple hours away. And, perhaps most importantly, I’m putting together a design portfolio page for an important job interview on Wednesday.
In Second Life, I did a custom Photoshop “skin” for my formula race car model for a client and was paid 10,000 Lindens (about $30), I did a three hour stint as announcer for the audio and video recoding of the Formula SL race on Saturday and then DJed for two and a half hours on Sunday for 1800 Lindens (about $7).
So, you can see why I’m a great workaholic but a lousy entrepreneur. Let’s just hope I have a great interview on Wednesday.