Escaping the News Cycle, Shop n' Hop and Random Strangers

 

When it seems like the whole world has gone crazy and my stress levels are running high, I like to find somewhere to unwind, even if it's virtually.

I fled to Second Life after watching one too many first world press conferences. I opened the map, found a small, public island on the Blake Sea and teleported over. I sat on the sand and watched the boats go by, listened to the waves. It took me back to my 1st life hometown, I could almost smell the sea air.

There were quite a few people around, doing their own thing. I enjoyed people watching.

I got a random DM from someone, an innocent "hi." I responded politely, but I wasn't really in the mood for company. I did read his profile, because I am nosey as hell. It listed among his interests "panty sniffer" and "upskirt expert."

Just ew.

I try not to judge but at the same time, I don't necessarily want to spend quality time with a self-described panty sniffer. 

When he cruised by in his tiny prim houseboat and said "Let's child together," it was hard not to bust out laughing. I'm still not sure if "child" was supposed to be "chill" or if that was his way of inviting me to bump uglies. Either way, I politely declined, while internally I snort-laughed.

I know I should have taken pics, but I wasn't prepared. 

Anywho, early access to the Valentine's Shop n' Hop is open, so I'll probably check it out later. I'm still trying to build up a basic LaraX wardrobe, maybe I can find some deals there. I'm also on the lookout for a small, rustic kitchen set and a decent, rigged backpack. 

Reasonably priced of course *wink.*

Do you ever use Second Life as an escape? How do you feel about receiving random messages? Let me know in the comments. (I told you I was nosey!)

Mainland, Memories and Early Predictions

Click here to visit.

During the early years in Second Life my friends and I spent countless hours parked on the wall surrounding Bear Dream Lodge Infohub. We had many deep conversations about the future of the grid, while modeling the latest in freebie fashion. I don't remember any of us having any grand business plans or motivation to improve our new reality. I seem to remember telling people I already had a first life job, I was just here to live out my fantasy as a socialite, which, it turned out, was just a glorified bum. 

Our loitering was frowned upon, but it didn't matter. We'd claimed the space as our own. Looking back, as our numbers grew, our congregating on the wall did take up space that prevented new residents from arriving, so there was that. 

Teh smexiness, it hurts me. (Click to embiggen)

When Linden Labs began offering private islands for purchase, I speculated that soon our beloved Mainland would become an apocalyptic landscape, lawless and covered in slums, abandoned by the elite who'd fled to private islands, leaving those of us who were less privileged to fend for ourselves. Many of the wall dwelling crowd agreed, painting a dim view of the future.

To say our imaginations ran wild is an understatement, but there were wee bits of accuracy to our predictions. 

Most rental estates fled to islands, which at first seemed like a horrible thing, but gradually rent prices began to level out. It wasn't long before more and more residents could actually afford "luxury"  island living. Fast forward to today when even premium account holders, with the offer of a free house on Bellisseria, still opt to live on private estates.

As for Mainland, it's not the post nuclear hellscape I imagined back then, but it does feel sort of empty. There aren't the strict rules of the estates, giving you the freedom to do pretty much whatever you want. A UFO abducting a cow behind your ultra-modern beach home? Sure, go for it! Dragon breedables wading in the surf? Not a problem. As long as you're within the Linden Labs Terms of Service, you can entertain any flight of whimsy your heart desires. 

The flip side of that is, so can your neighbors.

Adding to the feeling of emptiness on Mainland are the vast rolling hills of abandoned land. Abandoned land happens a few ways. One example, someone buys up large parcels without regard to the tier they'll have to pay, intending to stack skyboxes on every square meter, only to realize no one wants to live that way, even in Second Life. With no way to make tier (virtual taxes, sort of) they usually try to sell it first, eventually giving up as they lose money and letting it go. It then becomes the property of Linden Labs. 

And that, is good for you if you're looking for land to buy. You can purchase any abandoned land for L$1 per square meter directly from the Lindens. 

There are some wild builds along the highways of Second Life, making exploring one of my favorite past times. Playing GTFO or taking part in the weekly Grid Drive will add another layer of excitement to your exploring. 

You never really know what you'll see, which is usually a good thing.

Anywho, I hope ya'll have a good week. We'll talk again soon!

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!

Places to go in Second Life - Siren's Isle

Sunset on Siren's Isle

Over the weekend, I wanted to do some exploring, so I pulled up the map and looked for a good place to begin. I hadn't cruised the Blake Sea in a while and I love to be on the water, so I started plotting a course from the northern coast of Corsica down and around the islands to see if it was going to be doable. I think I could have made it, but it would take a while and I didn't have a lot of time.

I decided, instead, to teleport to Windlass where I knew there were rez zones. Once there, I dropped my boat in the water and made me way over to Siren's Isle.

There's always a gathering of residents at Siren's Isle, some in boats, a handful on the island itself, flying overhead and swimming underwater. You never know what you'll find when you get there. On this recent visit, I saw a woman riding a dragon, a Ninja Turtle flying a helicopter, several boats, people fishing and one man in a three piece suit, pacing back and forth in the shallow waters. 

I donned my bikini and stretched out on the deck, listening to the gulls and the waves crashing into the shore. The gentle rocking of the boat, the sunset, the two ladies quietly fishing off the back of their pink and white vessel all adding to the ambiance. 

Siren's Isle used to have a serious griefer problem, but I haven't experienced any in recent months. That's a chance you take anywhere residents gather. 

From here, you can set off in any direction to explore the open sea. Just make sure to keep your mini map open to help you navigate. I usually check the big map every once in a while to make sure I'm still on my chosen course. 

Exploring is probably my favorite pass time on the grid. What's yours? I'd love to know.

We'll talk again real soon. Keep living your best Second Life.

When Backdrops Fail: A Creative Solution in Second Life

I'm aware of the hand clipping. Someday I'll be able to get Anypose. 

I recently popped over to Backdrop City for the first time in a while. Anyone who takes lots of pictures knows they have a HUGE selection of Second Life-inspired background images. I was met with a sign announcing changes to their setup. Now, instead of having all the individual background builds, they have rezzers, making it possible to offer even more options. This sounded like a great idea to me, so I decided to give it a try.

I wanted to use my Supernatural (TV show)-inspired Impala as a prop, so I thought it would be a good idea to start with a gas station or garage image. I scrolled through until I found the perfect one, tried to rez it, and a "region full" error message popped up.

Dang it.

I tried a few different ones (the definition of insanity) to no avail, and finally gave up and TP'd back home. After some thought over a game of BubblePop, I came up with a solution.

Since it was a car-themed shot, why not just head down the road a bit to the nearest rez zone? I have the region to myself most of the time anyway, so it's not like I'd be blocking traffic—well, except for the occasional pod tour, but I'm used to dodging those. I adjusted the environment settings, added some light, the car, a pose stand, and some fog. Above is the result. There's another angle on my Instagram page, if you'd like to check it out.

I think places like Backdrop City are great, but sometimes we get used to the convenience of using premade atmospheres when we have everything we need right in our backyard. 

Think of all the quirky little builds along SL roadways and how cool they'd be for a photo backdrop. Granted, rezzing props would be an issue, but you can get creative with attachments. 

What tricks have you learned for getting the perfect shot?

Let me know below and we'll talk again soon!

Nothing to Do? No Friends? Make Your Second Life Great Again.

Are you bored in Second Life? 

You've shopped the sales, built a wardrobe to rival the Kardashians and found the perfect hair and skin. You look fabulous! But now you're standing alone in your skybox, with no idea what to do next. 

It happens to all of us. Whether you're new to the grid or a long time resident, everyone finds themselves in a rut from time to time. After encountering countless residents looking for something to do, I decided to come up with a list of tips for breathing a little life back in to your Second Life. 

Find a Job

Having a job in SL is the most effective way to get out, meet some people and kick your social life into gear... and it's fun! I've met some of my best friends while working. There are countless host/hostess jobs, role play positions, openings for dancers, club managers, personal assistants, the list goes on.

Make sure you shop around and find an employer who works with your in-world schedule. Keep in mind, the majority of business owners don't consider Second Life to be just a game. Honor your commitments and respect that they've likely invested real world money into their venture. 

You can find job listings by browsing the classifieds, visiting the employment forums and on social media sites. 

Host an Event

I've used the events listings to club hop, enter contests, join discussions and explore.  Hosting events makes it easy to find people who are online the same time you are and share a common interest. 

I've found that many residents don't realize that you don't need to own land to hold an event. You can have a basic account or be new to SL. This excerpt from the official Second Life event rules explains that an event can even be held on "public" land:

You may currently post up to 15 events per day (including event edits). In addition, your friends will now be able to post events on a parcel that you own. However, you must set that parcel to show up in Find Places as a Hangout. If your parcel is not set up as a Hangout, the parcel will not be available to your friends, but will continue to be subject to other availability rules.

To further clarify, you may post an event on a parcel if:

• You personally own the parcel and it is at least 512 square meters in size.
• The parcel is owned by a group that you are an owner of, or that you have the 'host events' ability for, and is at least 512 square meters.
• The parcel is in a private island that you are on the access list of, and is at least 512 square meters.
• The parcel belongs to Governor Linden and is set to show in Search Places as a Hangout.
• The parcel belongs to a friend, it is set to show in Search Places as a Hangout, and is at least 512 square meters.

An event is defined as a special group activity that is led by a host on land owned either by the host or by a group the host belongs to. Examples include discussions, group meetings, hosted dances, classes, tours, and competitions. 

I've hosted discussions on varying topics from SL relationships to how to survive a Mars colony. Whether you're an intellectual or just looking for some folks to share celebrity gossip with over coffee, creating your own event is a great way to find other people who share your interests and time zone.

Learn a New Skill

Have you always wanted to learn another language? Ready to tackle Blender, but not sure where to start? 

Our virtual world can be a resource to learn fresh, new skills. A quick search of the classifieds finds free English lessons, DJ classes, even classes on public health.

Builder's Brewery offers ongoing classes in creating almost everything on the grid. Mesh, basic prim manipulation, scripting, textures, you name it. You can visit their in-world location here.

Look on YouTube for how-to videos by some of our long time residents. For business advice, Black Dragon settings and creating SL content for social media, I head for Meela Vanderbuilt or Strawberry Singh. There is an abundance of long time residents with great advice on all things Second Life. 

Play a Game

I'm not talking about the gaming sims, where you can lose your $L balance in a matter of minutes. We have board games, like Simopoly and Greedy, SL versions of popular first life games. You can find sims with public access to most of the popular ones. There are usually a few people in and out, looking for someone to compete with. 

I'm personally addicted to Bubble Pop. I need a 12 step program.

My favorite driving game, GTFO, uses a HUD to create a freight delivery system. Use your own vehicle to explore the mainland and Blake Sea picking up and delivering imaginary parcels, while discovering new and unique places around the map via roads, waterways and air.

Participate in Groups

Enjoy chatting with other residents about common interests? 

We all belong to in-world groups for our favorite stores and sales, but there are other groups for everything under the sun in SL. Do you have first life hobbies? Is there something you've always wanted to try, but can't because of physical limitations? Explore those interests virtually. Learn to fly an airplane. Gallop into the sunset on your fancy Irish Cobb. Groups for aviation, role play, driving groups or equestrian competitions can be found by using the in-world search. 

Seriously, there is a group for anything you can think of.

Some are more active than others and most are free to join. Be sure to take a moment to read through their rules, you don't want to step on any toes.

I speak from experience. 

There's no reason to be bored in Second Life. I think we get in the habit of doing the same thing, each time we log on and forget how expansive our world is. Hopefully, this will give you some new ideas. 

What do you do when you feel like you're in a virtual rut? Share your ideas in the comments below!

We'll talk again soon, keep living your best Second Life!

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.

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.

There Be Giants

Tired. I'm probably not moving from this spot for a while.

What have ya'll been up to? I've been suffering from a house building obsession for about a month now. During that time, I learned some new skills, remembered some old ones and found out a few things about myself. 

First, I do not have the patience nor the brain cells required to texture and shadow each and every wall, floor and tiny little window trim. Second, and most important, I suck at building houses. The one thing I am good at, apparently, is buying houses.

I did complete a lovely home. When it was almost finished, I invited a friend over for a visit and made yet another earth shattering discovery about myself.

You see, when you spend most of your time alone, you never realize that you're A FREAKING GIANT.

So I took a short break from aligning and texturing to venture out to the club scene where I casually slid up behind other avatars and gauged my height against theirs.

Yeah, I was a creeper. You do what you have to do.

Adjustments were made. Finally satisfied that I wouldn't look like Godzilla stomping through the village when I did go out, I returned to my build, which I then realized was BUILT FOR A FREAKING GIANT.

Disgusted, I deleted it all, including the little island it sat upon, which hadn't done a thing wrong. I decided to set up house on the actual coast, which has enough actual land for a rusted out hippie van and not much else. So I needed something on stilts, beachy, but not shacky yet with a touch of class.

I'm not picky. Much.

I shopped ya'll. I am reasonably sure that I visited every purveyor of houses on the grid. I looked at ultra modern, concrete and steel constructions, fishing shacks and even bought one of those furnished monstrosities with nine hundred and eleventy billion scripts.

That one lasted a hour.

But now? I'm done. If you fly over Faravari in the near future, you'll be able to find me floating in the pool, eyes glazed over and scarcely moving.

That is, until I get another wild hair and decide I need a new house.

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.

Exploring Mainland: Part 2

I began my ride along Route 8, clearly marked on these little signs at each junction. As I said before, I assumed I'd find vast abandoned parcels with little or no tasteful builds.

I was so wrong.

While there were large unused parcels, there were more that were beautifully landscaped with comfy  homes.

And pets. Lots and lots of pets!

There were gas stations and GTFO hubs everywhere. GTFO was a mystery to me, one of the newer Second Life games that came along when I was away. After reading up on it, I understood why me and Coal almost ended up as roadkill. Those eighteen wheeler drivers are just like the real thing, whizzing by at breakneck speed.

One hub was a very realistic truck stop, with a car wash, showers, a convenience store and a diner. I think it was "Naughti Gurl's."

While I get the appeal of private sims and places like Bellasaria, I love the quirkiness of mainland. You can be riding along, admiring the city skyline in the distance, then suddenly stumble across a massive castle, built high in the sky.

The abandoned parcels, however, worry me. I wonder what will happen to them. You can purchase them if you own other land in the region, but what happens when an entire region is abandoned? Will it stay empty? Will it become Linden managed property like the new homes regions?

I guess we'll see.

You can find these pictures and more on my Flickr page.