Neighbor Wars and Running Hot

Well this is a lovely view I logged on to this morning. 

There's been something going on between my next door neighbor and the one that lives between them and the sea. It's a pretty little corner of the world, when there aren't random parcel boundaries popping up. It's usually not an issue, I normally de-render the textures and move on. 

This time, however, the resident with the "group only" banlines on my eastern border has extended an invisible prim all the way across and in front of my ocean access. 

I swear I haven't done anything to tick anyone off. It's not a huge deal, but I do enjoy taking my boat out on occasion. 

I've sent some friendly IMs, I'll keep you posted. 

The issue of sketchy neighbors is one of the reasons so many people choose living on private estates. There are rules to keep the peace, no one bothers you and stuff like this doesn't happen. When I was leasing my homestead, I had missed having neighbors to say hello to. I loved seeing the random boat pass by, watching helicopters pass overhead. 

I missed Mainland. 

Unfortunately, it's the handful of residents that have a small stroke if one leaf of your palm tree extends over the shared parcel line, causing them to over react by dropping giant structures to block views, that cause issues on mainland regions. It's usually the folks who spend most of their time in a skybox or log on for an hour once a month. 

I don't get it.

Anywho, moving on.

I'm loving the new Firestorm update. I know some have reported problems, but with the exception of the first time I tried it, it's worked amazingly for me. The only problem I had was my laptop overheating whenever I logged on to Second Life. I tried to fix it, googling and scouring the forums, but I couldn't find any recent information. I decided to order a cooling pad to see if that would help. The next day, I was scrolling through Twitter and saw a post about energy conservation and how limiting your FPS would reduce the workload on your system. 

I was so excited to find the tweet that I didn't pay attention to who posted the information. I wish I had, if you happened to see it, let me know in the comments so that I can give the person credit.

With the new update, my FPS had shot up to well over 100, so it sort of made sense that this could be causing my problem. I went to preferences, graphics, then rendering and limited my fps to 60 (I assumed that should be plenty for whatever I happen to be doing) and my system temp immediately dropped. 

It was too late to cancel the cooling pad, but I figure it will come in handy when taking pics in Black Dragon (which also tries to melt my computer) or recording with OBS. 

Since the update, I've experimented with some drives along LL routes, using my favorite Supernatural inspired SL version of Baby (if you know, you know,) with few issues. As usual, it depended on the region but for the most part, I had a much improved experience. I also toured the Sharp continent on horseback, taking my new Teegle Irish Cobb out for ride while snapping a few pictures and checking out some land for SL Land Source. 

Do you have any harrowing neighbor stories? Have you had issues with the new Firestorm update? I'd love to see them in the comments below!

We'll chat again soon. Keep living your best Second Life!

Fall Sales, A New Business and Getting Back in the Groove

 I feel like I'm finally getting my Second Life back on track. I sort of got carried away with the whole strip club debacle, spending more money than I should have and thinking I "needed" things I really did not. It's been a challenge moving from my rented homestead back to a 4096 parcel of mainland, but to be honest, I missed living among, at least the potential for, neighbors. 

I did give in and do a little light shopping. Kaithleen's and Tarte are both having really nice fall sales. I picked this bench swing up from Tarte, left over from the weekend sale. I'm always on the lookout for cute furniture with cuddly poses (my significant other is a real cuddle monkey.) It fit in nicely with the witchy corner I've carved out of our beach property. A steal at L$60.

When I first returned to SL after a long absence, I flipped a lot of land to make money. I would use the tier free 1024sqm that I got with my premium account, find parcels that size to sell for a profit and rez my little sky island over it as a temporary home until it sold. It was during this time that I discovered that I could spend endless hours scouring the map, looking for available land and teleporting around to visit the different areas of mainland. 

Remembering those days and figuring out how to turn that into a lucrative business was a challenge and was how SL Land Source was born. Each week I look for two parcels that are for sale on the mainland, one small and one large that meet at least two of the following criteria:

• Amazing view

• Road access

• Water access

• Near a GTFO hub or other rez zone

• One protected boundary

I don't accept payment for land to be featured on the site, but I do offer advertising space for Real Estate, Landscaping and Rental businesses as well as individual resident land sales.

I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

Anywho, I'm going to go decorate my new office space. Without buying anything new. Hopefully.

How are you living your best Second Life? Let me know in the comments below!

Starting Over... Again

 

Hey Ya'll! It's been a while, hasn't it? Let's catch up.

The strip club was short lived. I stand by what I've said all along. Don't open a strip club in Second Life. The market is too saturated. Why, then, did I open one? I'm not sure. I guess the best answer is, after years of working in the industry, I wanted to try it my way. I leased a homestead, threw my heart (and money, lots of money) into it and gave it a shot. 

So, that's closed. 

After shutting down the homestead, I grabbed a couple of parcels on the water until I could figure out what I wanted to do. In the mean time, I kept my eye out for some good abandoned land where I could rebuild, start over and rethink my SL. 

If only it were this easy in the flesh and bones world.

I settled on this 4096. The reasons it was abandoned were apparent. It's a corner parcel with limited terra forming. It's on an older continent so although it's partially beach, the sand texture is that greyish brown color. I was able to cover it with some land form mesh, add some beachy vibes and create a nice little home. It doesn't technically have ocean access, but I have one neighbor without ban lines, giving me access to open sea for my boating adventures. 

I think I'm finally settled. For now.