Landscaping Struggles and Making a Home

 I spent time over the weekend working on my Second Life parcel. I try to include representation of all the elements: water, air, earth and fire. I was missing water.

At first I had terraformed down to see if I hit water, I can see (if I squint) the sea from my porch, but I wasn't as close as I'd hoped. Most of the landscaping I've done in the past was on larger parcels, regions even and I'd forgotten how the slightest change can effect your whole parcel when you live on 2048 sqm.

I ended up buying a premade pond, but I didn't pay attention to the textures and how they did NOT even remotely match the sandy grass of my land. I put it back in my inventory.

I have the Skye river building kit and for about a minute I considered building a small creek bed along the dirt road/driveway, but that seemed like over kill. I decided to build a small pond beside the house, using another Skye component. It didn't look bad, but one side was against the border and as much as I tried, there was no way to make that one side of it look right.

I scrapped that too.  I'm thankful I don't have any nosey neighbors. I would have been embarrassed by my landscaping shenanigans. 

Eventually, I threw in the towel and decided on a fountain instead of a natural water feature. I dug around in my inventory and cobbled together a little seating area from a few different landscaping sets. The results aren't perfect, but it didn't cost me anything to use what I already had. 

I love decorating and landscaping, but I could never do it professionally. I'd have to keep going back and changing things. I'm pretty sure that wouldn't go over well with the clients.

I worked on the house some as well, added a kitchenette and a few homey touches. 

I feel like it's complete. For now. 

Do you ever truly finish decorating your Second Life home? Is it constantly changing or does it stay the same for long stretches of time? 

I think I'm going to make a short video later. We'll see. Ya'll take care!

A.I., Chatbots and Landscaping Mainland

My happy little corner of the mainland.

Did ya'll hear about the new AI chatbots Linden Lab is working on? I can't wait to play around with it! At first I thought it was going to be like Smartbots, which are great if you have a business with a storefront or office and are looking for a presence there. I have one alt I've used with them, Dean. He was the greeter for Puddles, the discussion venue, and the club I ran after that. He was fun to play with (get your mind out of the gutter, not like THAT.) You can find more information about the AI Character Designer here.

I used to joke that Dean just wanted to be a real boy, so maybe AI will get him closer. He can sit on the porch at my new place and annoy the neighbors. I'd have to change his clothes though, he's currently dressed like a body guard, complete with earpiece. Maybe I can get him some booty shorts and a tank top. Or better yet, find him some overalls. 

Speaking of my new place, the ticket I submitted for the abandoned parcel was approved the day after Christmas. In the past, I've had to wait a bit longer. It was a pleasant surprise. I need to finish landscaping (see pick above.) I've already changed my mind and torn everything out once. I'm happy with how it's turning out now though. I need to add grass or hay and put my horses back out, plant some more trees. 

Maybe I'll give ya'll a tour when I finish. I need to practice my YouTube skizzles anyway.

Why is a new home in Second Life so satisfying for me? I'm sure there are some arm chair therapists out there who could figure that out. 

Anywho, ya'll keep living your best Second Life. I'll be over here sliding trees around at the new place. We'll talk again soon!

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.

There Goes The Neighborhood

Yes it's another house. Don't judge me.

My neighbors are disappearing. The lot to the south is still for sale, but with new owners. It's still pretty cheap, the buyer only raised the price by L$1000. If they don't sell it fast, they're going to spend more in fees than they'll make. It'll be a deal for someone.

I thought about buying it, it's much larger than what I have, but I'm content with my little plot (and my monthly bill) for now. I'm holding out for the 1024m between me and protected water. I'm hoping it gets abandoned eventually. 

Plus, I've finally sorted out my wandering horse falling in the water. It was a little disturbing to log on and find him chilling on the ocean floor.

The one friendly neighbor I had abandoned her land for a Linden houseboat. I'm happy for her, but I  miss seeing her over there.

There were brief border wars between folks on adjacent parcels. One eventually packed up and left, after the angry returning of property invading prims and ugly border markers, then put their parcel up for rent. It went fast, but the new tenant was even worse. She invaded on everyone's lines, even partially blocking protected waterways.

It's fun sitting back on my deck and watching uglier and uglier markers, signs and obnoxious builds going up between angry neighbors, until someone gets a cob up their ass, packs up and leaves.

As I've said before, I'm easily entertained. It's what I love about living on the mainland.

The property behind me is abandoned too. I can probably lower my cliffs for now, I can't remove them or Coal will try going for a swim. He thinks he's a Kelpie, apparently. I was amazed the first time I saw him actually swimming. Who knew? Second Life horses have evolved by leaps and bounds since the early days.

So for now, I'm enjoying the peace and solitude with the sound of waves rolling up on the shore, reading a bit and relaxing.

My second life, is a good life.

When Neighbors Harsh Your Mellow

When I logged off the other night, I stopped and gazed around my parcel, feeling satisfied. I was content. I had everything just so and I was feeling a little proud of myself. After my early struggles with my new mesh avatar (so many HUDs, seriously) I was no longer paranoid that my head was out of proportion to my body, that I was too thin, too muscular and too short. 

Virtual nirvana. 

I signed on the following day and as everything slowly came in to focus, I noticed a glow, yellow like a highlighter. 

Is the sun brighter than usual? Aliens landed? Minion infestation? I glanced toward the window and found the source. My neighbor, who's ginormous 4592m parcel dwarfs my little 1024, had put some crime scene looking monstrosity around her plot, right butt up against the line. If I'd put something like that up, I'd at least add a floating corpse. I mean, if you're going to be that tacky, you may as well own it.

Nirvana crushed.

I know people can do whatever they want with their own parcel, but why would you want to make it ugly for everyone else? 

I de-rendered the line closest to me, but that wasn't going to help if I had guests over. I'm still debating hosting discussions. I thought about it for a bit. I despise big ass screens blocking everyone's view but I didn't know what else to do. I went in search for something with a natural look. I settled on some rock cliffs, which cut into my splashy rock's spinny prim, so I had to take it up. So no more sea lion (for now.) I changed the islands from three to two, creating more usable land space and I added a waterfall. I'm not done tinkering with it, the construction is using more prims that I'd like. I might play with the size some or add more waterfalls. 

I've only seen the neighbor in question maybe three times. I don't know what the border marker fuss is about, I looked and I couldn't find where anyone was over the line.

Speaking of neighbors, I've made attempts to meet a few of mine. I talked to two who were super friendly and one that seemed woefully uninterested.

I guess two out of three isn't bad.

How do you deal with parcel boundaries and unfriendly neighbors? Let me know in the comments below!