Four Years in Second Life

 

Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart.

Haruki Murakami

 

          The pages have turned on the calendar and it’s been one year since I wrote my story about three years of blogging about Second Life (SL)! 

          As is my annual tradition I’ll blog about my last year inworld.  (And, not as Significant Other suggests because I can’t think of anything else to blog about!) 

          Also, I’d like to point out as Becca Kellstrom, my friend and sometime adult supervision in SL, (Much to Significant Other’s relief.) noted that I’ve actually been inworld for five years and been blogging for four.

          Unlike some writers whose muse inspires and guides them to works of sheer genius, not to mention profitability, I have to do it the old fashion way.

          In other words, I have to go out looking for my stories and then figure out how to write them. 

          Let’s start the recap!

          First, this was a tough year for me because of a close personal loss in Real Life (RL).   

          I got past it with considerable help from Significant Other and RL family and friends. 

          I took stock of where I was inworld and came back. 

          My SL friends were wonderfully supportive which reinforced my earlier belief that there are truly real and caring people behind all those pixels.  (Unlike some these days, I do believe in the overwhelming good nature of humankind.)         

          SL experienced its share of losses too in the past year.

          I had to stop my Seven Wonders of the Ancient World in SL series when many of the sims I’d either blogged about or planned to shut down. 

          Many beautiful sims were lost to us here.

          Phaze Demesnes closed and well and may be part of a trend to migrate from SL to other virtual worlds in the Metaverse.

         

Phaze Demesnes was a wonderfully, surreal place inworld and I fear we may never see its like again. 

          Utopia Naked Isle Resort closed as well and a marvelous group of people stopped meeting together on Tuesday evenings for some great parties.

          But, there were many positives this past year as well!

          I stumbled onto First UCC, the RL congregation inworld, and met some wonderful people and learned about their ministry and mission.  (And, to my and Significant Other’s surprise they didn’t ban me.  They are truly a welcoming community!)

          I met a geisha community inworld and explored the small Japanese town they resided

in. 

          In my continuing exploration of the BDSM community, I came across Devilhand and became their scribe-in-residence.

          Then there were all my new friends!

          Bec and Jerome Newstart from First UCC; kenna, Ama, and Steve from Devilhand; and Caroline Resident.

          Please forgive me if I didn’t mention you as there were so many of you!

          Of course, I can’t forget to mention some of my old friends in SL!

          Like Perry Peterson, the Mayor of Mieville, who brought us Valentine’s Day in Vegas, t

he Hobbits, and the freezing of the River Thames to name but a few of his events! 

          May O. Mingzi is still at Beau Belle Village throwing great parties on a regular basis. 

          And, I would be remiss not to mention Tera Trenchcoat, my loyal and long suffering Research Assistant (RA) who supports me in my offbeat adventures.  (Significant Other is convinced Tera sticks around just to see what trouble I get into next.) 

          There are of course many more of you and I wish time and space permitted listing all of you!

          But, I always enjoy your company and remember fondly our journeys together inworld!

As always, I have unfinished business inworld.

          There’s the boat trip to explore Mieville.  I have a crew, a boat, and all I need is a way to get everyone together at the same time. Details!  We’ll figure it out! 

          I’m still planning to interview my inspiration for exploring SL in the first place, Bunky Snowbear.

          Best of all, thanks to May O. Mingzi, I may have finally identified someone in RL who’s accessed SL from Antarctica!

          More to come on this one!

          What have I learned after blogging about SL for four years?

          SL is still a wonderful place with wonderful people who care about one another.

          There has been a great deal of change inworld since I started blogging and more seems to be just over the horizon.

          Finally, I plan to keep on exploring and blogging as long as there’s a SL!

          Thanks to all for following and reading!  

As always, I’m grateful to all inworld for their kindness and time in stopping to talk with a stranger who was passing through their lives

My Twitter handle is @webspelunker.  Please feel free to follow me and I’d be happy to follow you.

I can be found on Google+ as webspelunker Ghostraven.

My flickr Photostream is located here.

On Skype I’m webspelunker Ghostraven.

I welcome feedback from readers, please either comment on my blog or e-mail me at webspelunker@gmail.com . 

          If you would like to read about my other adventures in Second Life please click here.

          Open roads and kind fires!

         

Looking Back on 2014 in Second Life

Nostalgia is a file that removes the rough edges from the good old days.

Doug Larson

 

          My tradition for the last several years in Second Life (SL) as the days grow shorter and the winter chill draws closer in the nights is to look back on the year past just before we start the New Year.

          I reminisce about what I’ve seen and done, and what I haven’t.  (Significant Other’s eyes roll and comments that it’s a good thing this is only once a year.)

          This year as I start to blog, I’m thinking that it may mark a turning point in SL.

          Let me start with the good news first.

          The start of the community is still strong inworld. 

          I’ve met new communities like First UCC and am impressed by their vitality and sense

of togetherness not to mention the quality of their builds.  They have also interfaced very effectively with Real Life (RL) serving the needs of their congregants there and in SL. 

          Perryn Peterson continued his seemingly non-stop run of parties and hunts with Mardi Gras, recreating Tolkien’s worlds, and the Silk Road Hunt to name but a few. 

          Social media a new tool for me to reach out to meet new friends and find SL groups off the Grid. 

          All this led to new friends and new experiences in new places.  After all, isn’t this what SL is supposed to be all about?

          Finally, there was a management change at Linden Lab with Ebbe Altberg taking over the helm there.  Revitalization seemed possible. 

          Now, let’s go over the bad news.  (What?  Do you want me to lie to you and say everything’s fine?)

          The new version of SL (SL 2.0 in the press) being worked on by Linden Lab hangs over the community like the proverbial sword of Damocles. 

          Will we lose all our possessions that we’ve acquired and built over the years since the new version is not backward compatible?  (I don’t buy the idea tossed about by some that Linden Lab will keep both worlds open indefinitely.  There’s no profit in that for them.)

          How will we maintain our SL identities as we migrate to a new version?

          How many current residents will just give up and leave rather than deal with all the change and aggravation.

          Next, sims are closing at a regular and alarming basis,

         

I’ve blogged about the recent announcement of the closing of Phaze Demesnes, the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World that are no more, and I was informed just before I started writing this article that Muenchen is closing soon. 

          Many of these sims took years to create and their loss will leave a gap in the body of creative work that is SL.  The creative teams behind them are leaving in many cases too.  This is not a good sign.

          SL is not keeping up with the times in terms of technology either which is really sad considering how cutting edge SL once was.

          SL Go doesn’t appear to have reinvigorated SL as was originally hoped despite being a reasonable if somewhat overpriced mobile platform. 

          Facebook continues to eject SL residents despite their claims of developing a new approach for those who wish to conceal their identities.  Many including me that Linden Lab has done nothing to stick up for their customers here. 

          Finally, while I wrote earlier the new management team at Linden Lab offered early promise, their actions seem more to threaten the community’s existence than do anything to help it.

          How did I do on my plans for 2014?

          Well, I missed a few.  (Significant Other mumbles something about no surprises there.)

          I had hoped to restart several of my blog series that I’d fallen behind in 2013.  That didn’t happen.  (The one that I did try, the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, I found that all the sims were gone!)

          I didn’t overhaul my blog.

          On the other hand, I did increase my use of social media and my readership has gone up.

          I have participated in the 1920’s Berlin Book Club.  (Even if I’m almost thrown out some times.  No, not for unruly behavior.  Let’s just say that no everyone shares my enlightened social theories!)

          Finally, I wanted to be a better friend inworld. 

          I’ll leave this one to you, my readers, to decide.  (Significant Other actually gives me points for this one!)

          Recapping.

          A lot has happened to me this year both inworld and personally.  Yet, somehow, I’m still inworld and still plan on coming back next year.

          I feel that this year, 2014, has been a turning point in the development of SL and that we’ll only truly understand how much so only when we look back in future years.  But, something has definitely changed this year inworld.

          In a future article, I’ll outline what my plans are for the New Year and what I look ahead to!

But for now, Merry Christmas!

As always, I’m grateful to all inworld for their kindness and time in stopping to talk with a stranger who was passing through their lives.         

 

I'd also like to call out for special thanks my long suffering Research Assistant, Tera Trenchcoat, for putting up with my haphazard wanderings across the Grid.

My Twitter handle is @webspelunker.  Please feel free to follow me and I’d be happy to follow you.

I can be found on Google+ as webspelunker Ghostraven.

My flickr Photostream is located here.

On Skype I’m webspelunker Ghostraven.

I welcome feedback from readers, please either comment on my blog or e-mail me at webspelunker@gmail.com . 

          If you would like to read about my other adventures in Second Life please click here.

          Open roads and kind fires!

Buying a Boat in Second Life

 

All I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.

John Masefield

 

          Earlier, I’d blogged about grand adventure of mine - a boat trip through the twelve sims of Mieville in honor of their recent sixth anniversary celebrations. 

          You may ask why?

          I will not insult your intelligence with the perfectly logical retort, “Why not?” 

          I do it because it’s there.  It’s never been done before.  And, I figured I could get a few good stories out of it.  (Hey, it ain’t easy coming up with new ideas every week.)

          My loyal friend and Research Assistant (RA), Tera Trenchcoat, who always asks that I add that she’s also unpaid, stepped up and volunteered to come along. 

          A third traveler joined our group when Becca (“Bec”) Kellstrom asked to join us as well.  You may recall Bec as the Real Life (RL) minister who also works with the Second Life (SL) congregation, First UCC.  Bec hopes to see more of SL and learn to sail as we make our way across the Grid.  (Please no wisecracks about the need for bringing a chaplain along.)

          (Significant Other’s eyes roll and I overhear something about Gilligan, Ginger, and Mary Ann.) 

          We have our crew.  I have a complete list of the Mieville sims from Mike Olbracht.  What more do we need?

          Seems we need a boat. A motor boat.  (Sorry, Bec.)

          Tera in her usual efficient way has gone ahead and done a recce.  (I love using that word.  Confuses the Hell out of all my American friends and my British ones ask just exactly how old I am.)  The long and the short of it is that if we try to make this voyage by sail boat as originally planned then we’ll need at least a third life.  Tera’s recommendation is that we get a motor boat.  She doesn’t want to be an OAP and still be doing this.

          Since we don’t have one handy and this was my brainstorm, I’m tasked with acquiring one.  (Tera’s very good at delegating upwards.)

          I should point out that I can neither swim in RL nor have any inclination to do so.  (Significant Other is always amazed by this.) I’m not a beach person and as a matter of course I normally avoid boats.  (Let’s put it this way, the Staten Island Ferry is the biggest boat that I’ve ever been on that wasn’t moored to a dock.) 

          Despite all these shortcomings I’m the one going out to get a boat.  (The film Titanic started out better than this.)

          I tell myself that I can do this.  I’ve done more difficult things in both SL and RL.  (Significant Other’s eyebrow arches here.)  After all, how difficult can this be?

          Our boat needs a few basic features.  First, it should float.  (See?  I’ve got the basics covered.)  It has to be a power boat and it needs to seat three people. This is going to be cake!  (I always find Significant Other’s rolling on the floor laughing rather undignified.)

          My next challenge is where to buy a boat inworld? 

I do a search and come up with two names.  How’d I select these two?  Simple.  They were the first two names in my search results.  I’m ruthless when I’m on a mission.

I TP to the first boat yard.  A place called Best Jet Skis.  I find myself standing in water up to my knees in the harbor.  (I keep getting all these auspicious signals.)  I drag myself up onto land and start looking around.

This place has a lot of toys.  Motorbikes, jet skis, helicopters, planes, and boats!  I’ll spare you the ugly details but I find a beauty.  It’s a zodiac boat with two high powered engines and has plenty of seating capacity.  It’s like what the US Navy SEALs use.  (Mount an M60 on this and I could have some fun!  Better not talk like that around the chaplain, er, I mean Bec.)  She’s sleek with good lines and black like the night.  And fast!  Did I say she’s fast?  I love her!  (What’d you expect?  I’m a guy after all!)

Of course, there are problems.

One problem is that despite supposedly being in the business of selling boats and things, there doesn’t appear to any mechanism to purchase my dream boat.  Further, as I research the builder, it appears that he only does business in French.  While I have a limited control of the French language, I decide not to make American-French relations any worse by attempting to conduct a business transaction.  (Tera’s fluent in French, I do read profiles, but this is my mission and I’m going to complete it myself!)

I move onto my next stop, Roark Marine.  Now, here’s a place that just sells boats.  All sorts of boats!  In fact, they have this really neat pirate ship with working cannons!  I control myself.  (Facing a mutiny and being forced to walk the plank by my crew doesn’t really appeal to me.)

I come across a nice, little three seater runabout.  Won’t be any tighter than three people sitting in the back of a NYC taxi cab.  It’s quick enough. It’s cheap, 450 Lindens. (Significant Other wants to know what happened to SL being a free experience for me.) 

          I’ve made my decision.  We have a motor boat!

          My next problem is to figure out how to get her into the water to cast off.  Then gather up part of the crew and begin our voyage.  Oh, yes, another little difficulty.  I live on the East Coast of the US.  Bec’s somewhere in the Midwest.  Tera’s somewhere Down Under.  So, we’ll make this trip in relays.  Hopefully, we’ll be able to make a few legs of the trip together.

          My next post in this series will be the first leg of our voyage with whomever I can con into starting with me.  I’m not sure how many stories it’ll take but I hope to be finished before the end of the year.

          Wish us luck!

           I’ve included pictures of Tera and Bec along with a few shots of my boat buying expedition. 

          I’d like to thank both Tera and Bec for offering to accompany me on this trip and look forward to traversing Mieville with them!    

As always, I’m grateful to all inworld for their kindness and time in stopping to talk with a stranger who was passing through their lives.   

My Twitter handle is @webspelunker.  Please feel free to follow me and I’d be happy to follow you.

I welcome feedback from readers, please either comment on my blog or e-mail me at webspelunker@gmail.com . 

          If you would like to read about my other adventures in Second Life please click here.

 

 

Photo No. 1 Tera Trenchcoat

Photo No. 2 Becca Kellstrom

Photo No. 3 Best Jet Skis Offerings

Photo No. 4 The One for Me!

Photo No. 5 Zodiac Bombard X4 Details

Photo No. 6 Roark Marine Landing Zone

Photo No. 7 Dreams of Being a Pirate!

Photo No. 8 Runabout – The Sensible Choice

Photo No. 9 Roark Marine Offerings

 

 

Back to the DaVinci Gardens in Second Life

 

It is strange how we hold on to the pieces of the past while we wait for our futures.

Ally Condie

 

 

As part of my campaign to focus on the positive in Second Life (SL) and to avoid becoming the sort of crank whom readers avoid, (Significant Other’s eyebrow arches at the word “becoming.”) I’m blogging about the better aspects of SL now.

I may have gotten away from one of original blogging principles which was to avoid negativity because there seemed to be way too much of it around when I first began writing. 

So, as I did last week when I blogged about the sixth anniversary celebrations in Mieville, I’ll blog presently about the fun and wonder of SL which brought me inworld originally. 

To this end, I return to DaVinci Gardens in Kalepa.  A sim discovered originally by my Research Assistant, Tera Trenchcoat, a while back.

Two earlier visits were recorded in my stories about flying the different “devices” and dragons available to visitors there.  I was taken by the clever adaption of the ideas of Master DaVinci himself and from fantasy into the reality of SL.

I promised myself and my readers that I’d return and now seems as good a time as any.  So, I’m off!

I rez into the DaVinci Gardens landing zone and am facing the teleporter board.  Eighteen destinations await me.  The diverse offerings impress me.  Everything from the ancient pyramids to the Charleston to outer space. 

After having spent my previous visits in the clouds here at DaVinci, I decide to stay on the ground. In fact, going to the root of my name, I decide to go spelunking!  I select the Dripstone Cave and move along to the next stage of my journey.  (Air travelers in Real Life (RL), like I once was, would really appreciate the ease and safety of a teleporter to say nothing of avoiding the TSA and airline fees!)

I arrive in a subterranean cavern with bats flying around.  The ceiling is low.  Stalactites and stalagmites are in view.  Water pools in depressions in the floor.  I begin to rethink my idea to start at the bottom.

Looking across the cavern, I see paintings on the wall.  They are copies of the images from the Lascaux caves in France.  In fact, walking through some of them produces the link to the relevant Wikipedia article.

This may be a reproduction of a UNESCO World Heritage site but I’m starting to get claustrophobic!  (Which I normally don’t know matter what Significant Other smugly says!)

I move through the cave, dodging bats (pesky buggers!) and arrive at the edge of a body of water which seems to lead out to daylight.  Fortuitously, one of those SL devices is at hand which permits a gondola to rez and which I can ride in.  (Yes, I get the incongruity of a gondola in a cave filled with prehistoric drawings!  Please remember that I only call ‘em as I see ‘em!)

The designers in the DaVinci Gardens always seem to be able to marry the beautiful with a touch of whimsy.  Drawing on our ancient past and throwing in Venice does make for a fun trip.

As I suspected, the gondola floats down a stream which takes me to the outside world.  The stream banks are covered with colorful flowers, shrubs, and trees.  Visitors stroll through the fields. 

Small cottages reminiscent of those from fairy tales are on the embankment.  Smoke curls from chimneys.  Overhead, the cerulean skies of Kalepa look down on me as do the falcons which I’d noticed in my earlier visits.  I glide through the waters. 

All is at peace with the world.  (At least inworld!) 

Ahead of me loom the erupting volcano and the castle ruins.  Somehow from down here they seem even larger than from above.  In the distance, majestic towers rise and I can see the observatory with its telescope.

I continue down the stream and disembark at a small, aged stone pier jutting into the water.  I return home.

I promise myself to return again.

How can I not?

Once again, I wander through a small world lovingly built and cared for by someone or someones.  (I’ll track down whom for a future story.)  The attention to detail, the flights of fancy, and the wild spread of ideas tell me that some very creative people are behind DaVinci Gardens.

Places like this should be visited and experienced by anyone who calls himself or herself a resident of SL.  Sims like this just don’t appear.  They’re the result of hours spent researching, learning the tools, and then finally building it.  I can only guess at the monetary cost for tier fees. 

I encourage all to go and enjoy themselves at DaVinci Gardens.  I promise you that you won’t be disappointed! 

I’ve included a few pictures of some of the beautiful sights in DaVinci.  My photos do no justice to what awaits the visitor.  Go and see for yourselves! 

As always, I’m grateful to all inworld for their kindness and time in stopping to talk with a stranger who was passing through their lives.   

My Twitter handle is @webspelunker.  Please feel free to follow me and I’d be happy to follow you.

I welcome feedback from readers, please either comment on my blog or e-mail me at webspelunker@gmail.com . 

          If you would like to read about my other adventures in Second Life please click here.

 

 

Photo No. 1 DaVinci Gardens Teleporter Board

Photo No. 2 Dripstone Cave Landing Zone

Photo No. 3 Dripstone Cave Wall Paintings I

Photo No. 4 Dripstone Cave Wall Paintings II

Photo No. 5 Dripstone Cave Wall Paintings III

Photo No. 6 Underground River

Photo No. 7 Gondola

Photo No. 8 The World Beckons…

Photo No. 9 Riverside Cottage

Photo No. 10 Outside!

Photo No. 11 Riverside Flowers