Three Attractions for Only Two Spots
...and More to Come

Don't ask for something because you just might get it. In my last blog I wrote about how it would be tough to find a challenger for the mighty and built-to-amaze Educatica. Well now my One and I are drowning in an embarassment of riches. Still every sim does not receive the honor of consideration as a candidate for one of the last three slots on the DO IT BETTER 2014 roster. One also ran is Wonderful Denmark. Memories led us back to Wonderful Denmark. The place used to have nice farms, an old European village, and a sandbox. When the sandbox closed down, we stopped going there.

The islad had changed little since the sandbox closed. That did not surprise us. A lot of educational sims rot. What surprised us was how absolutely, frozen in time, the place was and how the stores were not for rent or rented out. Instead they were either freebie sites or education exhibitions with posters that are not even web sites on prims. No one has bothered to replace or update these posters in five years. Look at the inset that shows the date on the calender of events. At one point both my One Who Thinks She Knows and I loved Wonderful Denmark, and seeing it in this state of neglect hurt!

Bohemia showed up on the map a hop, skip, and a jump from Educatica, and since we were in the market for a European sim, sort of... we had a look. It was goregous. There is a town. There is a Crazy Forest with a hidden grotto, and of course there are cat tails. Why do the Czechs do cat tails so well!

I wish the rest of Bohemia was as beautiful as these cat tails. A sim must unfortunately be REALLY GOOD to make the DO IT BETTER 2014 roster, and poor Bohemia falls short on several counts. First, it is not particularly interactive. There is more to life than walking or sitting. Second, half the stores in the public square are empty. Empty stores are sad things. Third, close to half the sim is behind ban lines, and ban lines are a class one NUISCENCE!

Research Island Denmark all but touches Wonderful Denmark. I vaguely remembered it as a sim with windmills and rocket ships. It was worth a visit we figured, and Research Island Denmark did NOT match our memories at all. It was now Metropia, the City of Suerpheroes, and super heroes must live very, busy lives, but you don't need a cape and tights to take in all the city's interactive attractions. My One Who Thinks She Knows, says I'm always getting a little too round. Here I am fighting the battle of the bulge in the Proving Ground Gym, and yes there are free dumbells and bar bells available. A strong avie is a happy avie.

Though personally, my favorite exercises are swimming, skiing, and rowing. Yes, there are free boats. There are also free oars somewhere though I had a set from Virtual Ability. Rowing is great for avatarim that don't have a swimmer in their inventory or don't have bathing suits either. It lets them enjoy the water and drive something without having to own or rezz a vehicle.

Then there is the playground. Face it, my One told me that superheroes are the fantasy of one's youth, so a little neoteny is a wonderful thing. Actually hearing my one sing the Majorie Daw song which she does whenever I ride a see-saw is worth the price of admission. My One is nearly always out of sorts, and the Marjorie Daw song cheers her up. Poor retched one....

Then there is the draw bridge. It is a bridge to nowhere. No island directly borders Metropia. It is also nearly vertical. I tried to lower it. I could not, so I tried to walk up it instead. I got to the top and flew down. It is a good thing we avies can fly.

So why not include Metropia on the DO IT BETTER 2014 roster? My One once loved super heroes, but these days she's critical of them. She says no adult One can look at super heroes without a trace of irony or betrayal, betrayal at them for not being real and in her case for disappearing from Saturday morning TV 1970-71, and irony in the warmest sense from remembering the music of Mighty Mouse and UnderDog. Then according to my One there were The Mighty Heroes, starring Diaper Man! My One remembers that her mother did not believe there was a Diaper Man. Her brother and she dragged her into the den to watch The Mighty Heroes, and the One's mother became a Diaper Man fan. Sadly, Diaper Man, is missing from Metropia. My One also fears that the super hero theme effects the quality of the freebies. After all, not every avie wants to run around in cape and tights. Educatica offers better quality freebies and a much better club, while Metropia offers a lot more to do. How do you say dead heat?

My One Who Thinks She Knows also remembered a Dutch sandbox called a Zandbank and a Dutch Club filled with "the wealthiest avies we ever saw" that was called Jappy's Hangout. Jappy's is long gone, but that Dutch sim had to be somewhere, so it was off to Nederland/Noordzee, but we found no sandbox. Instead, we found a Nineteenth Century (or early 20th Century...not sure) Dutch village or small city, that was much, much more.

You can sum up Nederland/Noordzee's main attractions in three words: furniture, fire, and water. The furniture part attracts a lot of avatarim, and Nederland/Noordzee has houses that are NOT private residences and workshops that are also public. That means NO ban lines or security orbs. That means avatarim are free to try out the furniture. They can also sharpen knives, forge a sword, milk a cow, milk a goat, and spin cloth. There are even beds in which they can lie down. That is all they can do, but Nederland/Noordzee is a G-Rated sim.

Then there is fire. As on Arab sims and SL Israel, fire is always contained in stoves or behind high ceramic or tiled hearths. Wooden houses placed close together amp up fire's danger just as dry air and brush make a stray spark a weapon of mass destruction. Fire, however, is an avie's friend if she wants to warm her butt which is always cold. I speak from experience because I have fallen into the water hundreds of times.

I have dove in and swam in water, and there is plenty of water on Nederland/Noordzee. Here I am entering from a super-duper high dive. Don't ask how my One got this great front shot of me, but we got it on the first try. Of course, water sims can be fraught because I have a swimmer and a lot of other avatarim don't. Fortunately, there are water tunnels on Nederland/Noordzee so an avie can jut walk down to view ship wreacks, submarines, ruins etc... There are also ruins of a cloister on dry land on Noordzee.

One thing you won't find on Nederland/Noordzee is a coral reef. Instead there is a kelp forest. Yes, that was one of the places I went swimming. My One calls this ecological integrity and it is what makes Nederland/Noordzee such beautiful and wonderful sims. Of course by now you wonder why we don't just stick them in the DO IT BETTER 2014 list and have done with it? Well, first, my One has learned to select and not settle. Selecting is hard. She loves Nederland/Noordzee as do I, but she also has issues with it.

And yes, Noordzee offers free sail boats that are really quite impressive, but both Nederland and Noordzee are NOT REAL. The stores are not rented out to real avatarim. They are exhibitions only. The horses are not true rideables or breedables. No one lives in or can rent or buy copies of the houses. An ehxibition is not really Second Life with its hustle, bustle, and capitalist hurly burly. Sims like Nederland/Noordzee exist because they have outside funding. In the economy of ordinary avatarim, no one gets a whole sim to just make it look pretty or interactive for others. My One says we went to the wrong sim, and that somewhere out there is a live and vibrant Dutch sim. We need to look at it, at least for comparison. She also says there are Greek Islands where real avatarim rent stores and homes, that are not Potemkin villages, no matter how beautiful. We need to see some of this stuff, before making up our mind. This means that DO IT BETTER will drag on into November. No, it will not drag. It will march proudly. We're going to select not settle. Get that! Of course you do.

Iyoba BatOni with help from Eileen H. Kramer -- October 26, 2014

Educatica Needs a Worthy Challenger

We have NOT YET included Educatica on the DO IT BETTER 2014 list because my One Who Thinks She Knows has truly taken to heart that our choices need to be deliberate, especially when there are only three slots left, and also because we really do need a choice, and so far Educatica is the only contender for its slot.

And what a contender Educatica is! The build is old, but it is so original, it doesn't show its age. Also, the art exhibit we saw was different from the one last year. And space on Educatica goes to good use.

In the Archiv, the books are not just for decoration. Each asks you to wear it and then either gives you a HUD or a folder full of animations, textures, sounds etc... I had to discard some of these because I already had them, and I have a very full inventory. I never throw anything away, but the wear, receive, check your inventory routine put the Archiv head and shoulders above most Second Life "libraries."

And Educatica is interactive in the ways that most good educational sims are. Here, I play the piano in the club that has a turntable for a DJ to spin vinyl records and beer for the DJ to drink in case he/she becomes thirsty. No, Educatica is a Czech sim and universities there are "wet." Most college campuses in the United States are "dry." The Czech Republic does not share the United States' history of prohibition or a temperance movement.

And Educatica is not just interactive in the ways you'd expect, it's surprisingly interactive even for an avie and One team who think they "know Second Life." I tried touching this door and clicking it, but still had to wait ten seconds for it to open.

And none of these pictures can really show you how beautiful Educatica is. The sim is orange, Martian or alien desert. The pods are in the sky. There is a geodesic dome and a ground level station. In the dome is the club where I played the piano and in the ground station, grow plants including cat tails! Most buildings have curves and angles that are NOT ninty degrees so the build doesn't age like a typical box or prefab. What mesh there is, the builders have used judiciously.

Of course Educatica's best feature, or at least my favorite were the shuttles. You can fly these all over the sim, land them where you wish, and fly them as much as you want. For avatarim who are new to SL and broke, having a vehicle you can actually drive and fly for free is a huge plus!

Is there any downside to Educatica? It's Czech which means that directions, text, signage etc... is all in a language that most Americans (Even those with reading knowledge of more than one language) can understand. Google Translate translates kurzy as courses. The sign makes it look as if the word means stairs. My One says that foreign language in and of itself is NOT a nuiscence. College students and most adults should learn that people speak other languages and live with that. Still the Czech language puts the tutorials off limits except for what one can learn from the pictures. Educatica is also an educational sim, though I have to admit it is fun and worth the visit. It's in the running.

Graulhet Virtuel is not. When it comes to educational sims that are also fun and wonderful Graulhet Virtuel was once a twin of Educatica. Graulhet Virtuel is a mock up of a working class French village known for its tanneries. It is a blow that demolishes Americans' ideas of France as Paris and something else. This is the something else. It is the France of Emil Zola, who is one of my One's favorite authors.

That is why my One and I were both shocked to find Graulhet Virtuel not only under construction, but in disarray. I fell through several soft spots and in this picture I found pieces of plywood left all over the place. Nonprofit builders can be real coucherons at least according to my One. Now we are going to have to return to Graulhet Virtuel to see if it can stay on the Explore Second Life Spread Sheet.

Another attraction out of the running is Botanica. We both remembered it from a recommendation we got earlier this spring. It advertised a rainy garden or forest world, and a rainy forest sounded like fun. Alas, this sign says it all. The attraction is moving elsewhere, and only part of it remains.

In a way my One and I are fortunate. There are many more sims out there we have yet to explore and we have no raeson to rush the DO IT BETTER 2014 collection. I have a feeling I am going to be looking at a lot of European cities and villages soon, though my One has one place on her mind that draws her back with a very sad tale. I think you may know where this is.

Iyoba BatOni and Eileen H. Kramer -- October 22, 2014

Eliminating in our Own Process

Face it. Process of elimination is a sad thing. I think it is the ugly word, "elimination" that makes it sad. It is less sad when we eliminate a site from the DO IT BETTER 2014 because you have to be very good to make that list and there are plenty of good sites that are not good enough. It is sadder when a site eliminates itself. As you know, we had already knocked Finite Fini out of the running on Thursday. Over the weekend, the presesnt owners of the sim got evicted taking their gorgeous, prefab builds with them. So it goes.

Now as of last Monday we had eliminated Shinrei Ueno Hospital because it was not that interactive and we liked The Adventure of Ruin on Uchida, but my One Who Thinks She Knows has finally gotten it through her head: "Select don't settle." She wanted to try other dark sites, and our first choice was Lost Angels. It exists, but we are just not giving it a link because before you get out of the subway you get hit with a bunch of role play rules that make no provision for observers. In fact if you just stand around, they kick you out. How do you scream and shout "NUISCENCE!"

Our next stop was Devils Pocket. The name sounded too good to resist, though the sim was adult. Adult sims merely require payment on file so that is not a nuiscence, and the sims that we did cross, Devil's Pocket, Rougarou, Vodou, and Hathian, were beautiful in a temperate, gritty, realistic way. The crack house role play though sickened my One. She said it was jejune. She's had friends who lived near real life "crack houses." Crime is sad and squalid and nothing more, and your own people commit it not other folks in some other part of town. Also, most of the sim was residential which meant if you didn't pay rent, you were invading someone's home if you stepped inside. Sad to say, Devils Pocket might be a great place to walk around, but it was not cut out for the DO IT BETTER 2014 collection.

That left the the Caverns of Doom which appeared on Second Life Destinations. The guide advertised three sims worth of underground caves. This seemed too good to be true.

But the Caverns really existed, though they were a bit hard to find. The well under the dilapidated stone stairs is in a distant corner of Pine Valley Lake. There are no signs pointing out the place.

The Caverns are also a place where it is easy to make up and react to your own story. My One pointed that out, but she really liked my story better. Now, the Caverns are not for the faint of heart. There are heads in a bucket, skulls, bloody swords, an avalanche and the usual zombies. The Ones who feel cruel often make their avatarim mistreat the zombies, but remember they are bots.

To me, the the Caverns of Doom tell the story of what Ones do to each other when their ruthless nature gets the best of them, and they leave bots to celebrate their ruthlessness so they can laugh and pretend to be scaird of it, but through all of this, there is another much happier story. Ones Who Think They Know may kill eachother, and abuse the creatures around them, but still nature survives. Look at these beautiful cave salamanders!

And this shy creature reminded me of a type O (Giant size!) zwicky. I have zwickies at home. It was good that this lovely, red thing was large, because if it was a male, it would have less trouble giving birth. I always worry when Throckmorton, my smallest male zwick has a normal or larger size baby. I feel badly for putting him through a difficult birth.

And even better, the the Caverns of Doom are filled with bats, lots of them. This made me jump for joy, though my One worried that this cave was also a hybernaculum. That meant all the avatarim trooping in and out could bring White Nose Syndrome to the poor bats. In "real life" many bat species face EXTINCTION due to White Nose Syndrome.

It's the feral dogs in the cave, however, that are a much bigger concern. Some people might call these Hell Hounds, but they look like Doberman Pinschers and Pit Bulls to me. They also have been injured, probably by cruel ones. prodding them with weapons (There is evidence of battling Ones in the cave or maybe battling avatarim working at their Ones' behest) or throwing things at them.

And yes, I did ask the staff bot at the end of the cave to send in a veterinarian to treat the dogs and also to bring them a bag of chow. They beg terribly for food. They probably could also use some raw hide or rope bones so visitors can amuse them. They are after all a bit clingy.

And I'm sorry you did not get a scarey story. Dead human body parts, and all those animals made both my One and me thoughtful and sympathetic. Remember my One has a good heart, and she listens to it some of the time. She would like to ask the owners of the Caverns of Doom to put out a tip jar and donate the money to a charity that fights White Nose Syndrome.

But our own story is NOT whe we are not including the Caverns of Doom from the DO IT BETTER 2014 roster. The reasons are a lot more mundane. First, the exhibit is ephemeral. After November it will vanish. The DO IT BETTER list has to last a year. Second, except for the climbing ropes to enter and exit the attraction it is not particulary interactive. Just walking around doesn't do much. Third, one third of the exhibit lies beneath Pandore which is an adult sim. A visitor who does not have payment on file can be in the middle of exploring and hit a wall. A wall like that is a prime nuiscence. And yes, my One is really going to recommend raising money to save the bats in "real life," and The Adventure of Ruin became our sixth entry on the DO IT BETTER Board.

Iyoba BatOni with help from Eileen H. Kramer -- October 20, 2014

Saying "Yes" Despite the Dog Whistle

My One Who Thinks She Knows finally, GOT THE MESSAGE, and the message was and still is: "Think, really think, before you add something to the DO IT BETTER 2014 Collection." My One got this message even though she thoroughly fell in love with Finite Fini, and quite frankly there was a lot to love. There was a huge castle, with lots of stairs to climb and a jail with a door that opened and closed. Under the sea was the Splish Splash Mermaid Club. There was a creepy clown themed, circus club for dancing. There were gypsy wagons.

There was even a larger than life size model (Because poor Alice drank a miniaturizing potion) of a tea party in Alice in Wonderland complete with a white rabbit and a comfy cabin with a cute Boopie to hug and a raging fire on the hearth. What was there not to like! Well, for one thing we received a message not to disturb any one else. This was a nearly empty sim every time we visited it, but around us we could see group gathering spaces, nooks for assignations and even a few cuddling pose balls. The message, however, said if we came alone this was NOT a good place to meet new people. That made me feel sad and lonely.

Then there was the fairy. Normally fairies are either parthenogenic breedables with limited lifespans (If they still support and sell them) or else bots. This one was a bot, and she didn't just greet, she kept following me and wouldn't shut up. Finally, I had to take matters into my own hands. My One is not showing the picture of me with a fire-arm.

Aside from this though, I spent way too much time on this sim. I couldn't get enough of exploring the castle or underwater. Everywhere we looked, there was something new. My One said she felt bedazzled, yet she too had her misgivings. "This stuff is beautiful," she told me, "It's well executed, but I've seen all of it before. None of it is original either that or it dosen't resonate emotionally with me." I suggested we see what else is out there and we tried Hidden Feelings and landed in gorgeous gardens with large, locked residences hidden among the hedge grows. It was beautiful, but it was a residence for rich avies, and the wild plants were commodity plants though they were lovely and it was good to see a temperate garden.

"Let's try some place where we actually go!," my One suggested and KSA 3sha8 came to mind. Most of our experience with the sim was over three thousand meters up in an oversize kitchen where our Arab friend play pricey, group Zingo. That area's days are numbered due to the new skill gaming rules, though my One is not sure how strictly and thoroughly Linden Labs will enforce these rules. Therefore, we toured the surface, and yes, these roses have faces. No, we wouldn't plant them. Yes, we were glad to find them.

Much of KSA 3Sha8's surface is like a painting. This is the influence of Axxo Erin whose flagship build Arab Land is a lot more naturalistic than most Arab builds. It is fun to climb the mountains, walk through the forests, cross the bridges that sway over nothing below.

And there was even a club, an empty club like most clubs in Second Life. It had a hot tub, a wooden dance floor, places to sit.... These were the first places to sit we had seen on the island. Places to sit are usually something one takes for granted, but on KSA 3sha8 they were few and far between unless you were with a group wanting to play poker, parchisi, Risk etc... Arabs generally love gaming. If you are by yourself, you have no where to sit. Also, there were no teleporters to the sky attractions on KSA 3sha8 making them hard to access for newbies, and just the surface of KSA 3sha8 was clearly not enough. My One and I could love this island and still NOT put it on the DO IT BETTER 2014 list.

Of course KSA 3sha8 made our next choice of place to visit a no brainer. At both its old and new location SL Israel has been a go-to place for us, for photo shoots, for places to explore, for the beach, for the Kotel, for the marketplace, and the underwater exhibits. It was a big sim with big emotional resonance.

And it has grown bigger, 1800 meters (There are working teleports everywhere) above ground level we found the synagogue with this link to an iPhone app and to Hebrew Bible web sites. One of SL Israel's strengths is that it does a reasonable job balancing both Israel's relgious (It is partially a theocracy) and secular nature. The synagogue that advertised this iPhone app was Orthodox with the women in an upstairs gallery. This upset my One who said she preferred the Kotel. The irony is that in "real life" my One prays ina synagogue with a mechitzah, a barrier separating women and men, but in the United States no one would build a synagogue the way the modern looking, orthodox schul on SL Israel in Second Life was buit.

Of course right down the road from the modern looking, Orthodox synagogue was Zoola, a swimming resort with trendy shops nearby and a swim-up bar. If you keep tsnius, the Hebrew word for modesty, Zoola is not for you, and neither are most of the shops. You can hang out in the Old City at ground level. I love swimming in Second Life. My One hopes the swim up bar serves Coke. Asking for Dr. Pepper or Mr. Pibb in Israel seems like a bit much.

Actually, my One thinks that tone-deaf "seculars" designed SL Israel. In most American, Orthodox schuls the mechitzah runs down the middle and in a butterfly pattern. As my One puts it: "Praying separately does not mean praying in Siberia and separate seating means less distraction if you bring a husband or boyfriend to services." Small, private, organizations can come close to separate but equal. Women being able to see abnd hear is a BIG priority. You can see at the Kotel, the eight foot high barrier effectively locks women out. Still if my One and I want to pray in Second Life, this is where we do it.

And on this visit to the sky levels of SL Israel we noticed for the first time how much it resembles an Arab build. The oversize store-fronts have rounded corners, the pool area of Zoola is round and sculpted, and there are stages covered with monumental, rounded arches. And there is the campfire in its own bubble and restrained and contained in a mosaic pit. Arabs are careful to always contain fire, because their countries are arid and brush and a stray spark are a deadly combination. Of course on an Israeli sim you can swim, and not just stare at fountains, but the cultures and building styles are in some ways very similar.

That is why this exhibit in the Negev Desert came as such a jarring shock. Yes it is offensive, and yes it is realistic. There is a lovely, tent encampment on Arab Land, and there are camels and sheep on Arab World, but there are also cities, very formal gardens, plush furniture etc... There are huge fountains, and the animals are always positioned near oases where they can graze and drink, not left out on sand and scrub.

All of this brings me to what my One told me was a very inside joke that you can see if you are very observant as you explored the sim or have heard it in "real life". If you walk a short distance away from the Arab encampment, you will see ultra modern buildings with exercise equipment and modern, gleeming resaturants. On the sky level there is the Talmudical i-Phone advertisement. Even the Israeli souk has throughly modern, gravity flow bins. Do you get the joke? In Yiddish it is "goyishe kop" or gentile head. It is the W.A.S.P's God made because "somebody had to buy retail." It is the "ones who " bow down to vanity and emptiness and pray to a god that helps not." according to the Aleinu prayer that ends most services. I won't even go into the occasional Christian-bashing crack I hear from time to time in the right company, always polite company. The joke is that those other guys are DUMB! And not only are we Jews chosen, but we deserve what we get and have what we have because we are smart!

Of course you won't see the Arab camp as an ethnic slur unless you have the right background. This kind of a statement when it is political is called dog whistle politics. My One and I will not report it because we believe in free speech. If you hve the money to rent landd in Second Life, you have freedom to express what you want even if others don't like it. Neither my One nor I like the marginalization of Israel's Arabs or the nearby Palistinians or the way SL Israel depicts them. We also don't like the sim's secretiveness. There are few stores for rent in the traditional way, and the Second Life Israel web site says nothing about its hosting or funding. Here is the information. The Second Life Israel web site also lists no news or activities after June of 2014 and the island's posters date from August. Some of this secrecy is due to fear of anti-Semitic hordes, though the line between the hordes and legitimate political protesters can be pretty thin, and remember that those who rent the sim can boot the opposing side. This is how free speech works in SL! And anti-semitic hordes, however, always exist if you fear them and take appropriate measures.

I guess you can say that my One Who Thinks She Knows is very emotionally engaged with SL Israel. This sim has external funding and is stable, and there is plenty to see, do, and something to learn, not all of it pleasant, but neither "real life" nor Second Life are pleasant all of the time.

Iyoba BatOni with help from Eileen H. Kramer -- October 19, 2014

Nothing Sacred and Many Choices

Oh my One Who Thinks She Knows was reasonable. She can be that way from time to time, just as she has a good heart most of the time too. She agreed that we should deliberate before just adding Hokkaido Japan to the DO IT BETTER 2014 collection. Yes, it's a collection now. The obvious other choices were, Slow, the Mag SL Archipelago, Sapporo, the Trenza Archipelago or Nasp. Three of our choices went down right away. Slow has a desolate beauty that is good for out of sorts Ones but not much else, sad to say. Sapporo is now closed to the public. It has probably been sold. Nasp has shrunk to half its original size, not a good thing, and that left the Trenza Archipelago, the Mag SL Archipelago, and Hokkaido Japan to go head to head and mano e mano.

Now by all rights and in a reasonable world the Trenza Archipelago should have been the clear winner. It has eight islands. Mag SL and Hokkaido Japan are each part of a three island group, and the Trenza Archipelago is one of the finest builds in Second Life. If that were not enough, it is expanding and growing. The ground level area behind the wall on Trenza used to be just ocean with the actual build a hundred meters above. Now there is a "German fishing village" there.

You can see some of the boats getting ready to go to sea. It is wonderful to discover something new when you were just expecting a build as nice as the one you last saw a few months ago. And we had not even explored the best part of the Trenza Archipelago yet. At night or early in the morning (The Japanese are thirteen hours ahead of my One's and my Time Zone and seventeen hours ahead of SL time), the Trenza Archipelago, particularly Trenza Resort actually includes people! What could be better?

Well, you could say that Trenza Resort looks sterile. I like the rounded sidewalks, and face it we've all seen a whole lot worse. The Trenza Archipelago has another problem. Nonchalantly, I walked into the social hall on Trenza Resort. There was a group Bingo game in progress, and one armed bandits and camping chairs available to group members only. I knew that the owners did not allow nonJapanese Ones and avatarim into the groups. So what! This was the most beautiful build in Second Life or close to it. Think about that. If you were part of a group that had develoepd a drop dead fantastic build wouldn't you be proud, especially if it was public. You can guess what we got told. "Only group members can play." That's fine. We knew that, but then I asked if foreigners were welcome to just explore. I didn't get a "no," but I did not get an enthusiastic yes to match the sim's beauty. My One said this was a "hostile attitude." That qualifies as a nuiscence. The Trenza Archipelago is a drop dead, fantastic build, but it can not DO IT BETTER.

So it was off to the the Mag SL Archipelago or what is left of it. A lot of it has simply vanished, but Trinity is a new addition, and it is slowly developing. Also many of its attractions are anime themed as is this cat bar, all decked out for Halloween with anime posters inside. The cute, kitty theme is part of what the Japanese call kawaii. In this bar, you are a lonely bar fly or part of a group like any other member...most of the time. You are not a gawker. This is a public and hospitable facility.

Unfortunately, Trinity is still not fully developed, and thus lonely. This club, Club Niku, sits about three quarters finished with a huge plywood mega-prim behind it. And yes, a black cat holds up the signs and the building is in the shape of a paw, but the paw is a pad in mostly empty space.

I guess you can figure out that Hokkaido Japan became our fourth DO IT BETTER selection. It features plenty to do, interesting architecture, a taste of another culture that is fairly authentic, amusement park rides, a beach, two puzzle/fun houses and more. I am glad we did not rush to judgement.

I am glad even if it means we put our most classic DO IT BETTER site to the test and see if there are any other "dark builds" that are even better. Our classic site is of course Shinrei Ueno Hospital. It's a haunted, closed, mental hospital. Of course it is haunted. Such places were warehouses of human misery. That misery is now homeless on the streets and in our jails. I have no fear of Shinrei Ueno Hospital because I feel a deep sympathy and kinship with the lost souls trapped in the system. Somewhere at Shinrei Ueno is an attic full of suitcases as at Willard Mental Hospital in Seneca, New York, featured in The Lives They Left Behind.

STOP! It is very unlikely that those who created Shinrei Ueno Hospital have read The Lives They Left Behind, The Snake Pit, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, or Asylum. I project my One's and my own (We share memories even if I think for myself some of the time), stories on to Shinrei Ueno's dark walls. We want to hug the ghosts and claim kinship with them. My One does not think Shinrei Ueno Hospital was built to engender this kind of empathy.

The instructions that come with the flashlight suggest only one light per group and a kind of follow the leader where everyone giggles and pretends to be scaird instead of sitting and mourning in the darkness that we share with those who only left feet first or who are buried in unmarked graves somewhere on the grounds. And my One said: "Let's not debate whose story about Shrinrei Ueno is more authentic. We can look at another inauthentic story in the dark and one where it is harder to get the whole thing 'wrong.'"

Our inauthentic story begins at the tents on the island of Uchida, over which the sign reads: "Adventure of Ruin" The ruin is a Central American ziggurat. I'm not sure if it is Aztec or Mayan. My One says it is straight Holleywood. The picture shows me going down into the darkness. I am unafraid. It's kind of interesting down there. This is supposed to be an orientation course in Japanese but you can kind of guess at the instructions across the language barrier. A bit of trial and error does not hurt. It is impossible to get lost, hurt, or killed despite the place's fiersome appearance. Best of all, there is no special equipment neccessary.

Even the huge boulders are only a minor inconvenience because they are phantom. This is a great lesson for newbies by the way. Also having to push open doors, sit on objects, etc... is all part of the fun, and makes the exhibit interactive in a way that Shinrei Ueno is not. Moreover, the whole thing is painless. Just trust me on that one. Even the falling cleaver blades do not hurt because I had to run through them several times to get a good shot for this blog. What that skeleton is doing there is again pure Hollywood.

I don't mind playing stunt girl for a day, and best of all my One DID NOT add the Adventure of Ruin to our DO IT BETTER 2014 gallery. She said we had to visit several more dark places. I don't mind. I'm glad I am fearless and not superstitious. We need to keep in mind the real dangers of hostility and nuiscence. It is good to be able to visit, make up your own stories, and enjoy the beauty of exploring. You don't always have to belong or pay for everything. I hope somehow that is what the DO IT BETTER 2014 collection can teach.

Iyoba BatOni with help from Eileen H. Kramer -- October 14, 2014

Slow Down Look Around!

We owed our friend, Lodi, with the next lead for a place on the Do It Better 2014 board. Late at night a week ago he invited us to Hokkaido Japan and the invite brought back fond memories. You see, I'm a member of Sheep Door, which is located on that sim, and I keep the group for its interesting tag, but my One Who Thinks She Knows and I have visited the store, and the club across the way, and we remembered a ferris wheel... and my One said: "This might be a good candidate for a Do It Better location."

Well it was all there. There is a warren of underwater changing rooms beneath the pond's surface. There is a club next to the pond. The store was still there, not that we have much interest in what they sell. We remembered a fun house that we got stuck in, but that was only bad in a fun way, and a ferris wheel. My One promised me I'd get to ride that.

But before I took my ride we discovered the enchanted forest with its ruined houses and castles, its ground covered with moss, and wonderfully perfect (In fact my One would argue too perfect but nonetheless fascinating) retro mesh. My One looks at these suitcases and thinks 1940's, except that for Japan it would probably be ten years later and before that.... My One thinks this is a strange psychological puzzle. In the United States we remember World War II with Rosie the Riveter posters used in advertising, but we also glorify our military. "SUPPORT THE TROOPS!" You get the idea. With Japan it is forgetting and choosing one culture or another as if it were their own. My One thinks there are national characteristics that show up in builds. The Japanese are dedicated to perfection and doing it RIGHT. They also make retail and commerce into art.

Japan also never had a temperance movement like we had in the United States and Japanese attitudes toward alcohol are quite different. This spills into Second Life. Bars and cafes litter most Japanese sims. They are fun places to sort inventory, and yes I drown my sorrows from time to time, but avie beware! If you want to sit down on that comfy couch, or perch on that barstool, at least one of those animations will be "drunk and stupid." This bar was a little strange because it only served name brand cognac, which reminds my One of medicine, and she prefers apricot brandy when it comes to brandies. The basic fruit flavors just taste a lot better.

For those who don't like hanging out in bars/clubs, there are cafes that resemble tea rooms. This cafe in a building hidden behind the enchanted forest featured macaroons in a box, and a miniature ferris wheel (Hey One, you promised I could ride!) of red velvet cupcakes. Naturall, being an experienced avie, I touched the wheel and got "A cupcake for my head." Having at least some good sense that comes from thinking for myself some of the time, I have not tried to wear/eat the thing. I take great pride in my hair and don't relish it being full of cupcake crumbs or icing.

And I finally made it to the ferris wheel. It was not that hard to get on, and unlike many Japanese ferris wheels this one moved quickly and gave you as many circles as you want. This is points plus on an island that was already giving a lot more than we first thought it had. My One began to have ideas. "Let's add this to the Do It Better Board," she told me. I should not even have had to write that. I said "wait..." We were simply filling the board way to fast....

But then we saw the kingdom in the clouds and I just had to visit. Neither of us had expected this. In addition we visited Pell's Spells and the the Una Flor House, and were blown away by: the Una Flor House' elegant interior, the climbing and sliding puzzle at Pell's Spells, and most of all Pell's Spells' friendly proprietor, Pell himself. Pell said he loved to build. He was proud, happy, and welcoming. My One was already decided.

She had some very solid arguments. There was a lot to do on Hokkaido Japan. It was a lot more than just window shopping. There were amusement park rides. The residents were friendly (We'll get to more of that.). There were two other islands. There was swimming. There were underwater builds.

Also, avatarim could travel through Hokkaido Japan as visitors not gawkers. My One kind of explains it this way. Subculture tourism makes her want to vomit. The reason is simple. It makes some kind of lifestyle choices for avatarim a matter of becoming them while the rest of us, usually educators and business people and augmentative types who are sane about their experience are the us. When you are a visitor or explorer you think differently. You take advantage of public facilities. You do not have to waear a "just visiting" badge. You belong in your role as visitor. You may see things done differently, but as with the lovely, curving architecture on some Arab builds, you can and should take these lessons home with you. For educators, imitating some features of a Japanese cafe or social club might be great for a virtual student union or center. Discussion about false nostalgia might also inspire more art and let us look at how we in the United States are guilty of the same. I hope you can see the difference between visiting and enjoying yourself and learning, and gawking. A gawker might not notice the numbers on this scale. Most men and women weigh more than a hundred and five pounds but not more than one hundred and five kilograms (A kilogram is two to three pounds). Do the math. Then feel provincial for relying on the English system of measurement. By the way, the scale did not give me any reading on my weight. It is a vrey polite scale.

All of that said, I still counseled my One NOT to put Hokkaido Japan on the DO IT BETTER board just yet. "What about the Trenza Archipelago?" I asked her. It is four times the size of the three ilsands that include Hokkaido Japan. And then there is Sapporo with it's un-mall, huge hot spring, swinging bridge, and sandbox. And what about Slow where we actually go to relax, tour, and bathe in the Onsen? It is small, slow, and beautiful." I figured by now all the Gacha places were out of the running, "but Nasp which you adore as well?" If it sounds like I was pleading I was. My One, though listened. She said we needed to test Trenza Resort for hostility issues (long involved story). We needed to take a look at Sapporo and Nasp. Slow was too desolate for all but connoiseurs to appreciate, and there was new building in the Mag SL Archipelago.

Then my One said that: If we are going to go over Japanese commerce/social sims with a fine toothed comb it is time to do the same for Shinrei Ueno Hospital. There are other dark adventures that don't require us to read into them a very different story than what their creators tell. The pathos my One brings for the exmental patients, deinstitutionalization, the sad lives of the institutionalized etc... is not something the original builders had in mind. There is something about this unintended message that has always made her feel funny. Also Shinrei Ueno Hospital is not that interactive except for the natural interaction that comes from walking around. In addition, my One knows of at least one whole dark, archipelago where we have never been. I think we have our work cut out for us, if you'll pardon the cliché but that is fine. We can't just rush through our DO IT BETTER board, now can we. It's still at only three choices, and I like it that way...for now.

Iyoba BatOni with help from Eileen H. Kramer -- September 12, 2014

Do It Better I
Philosophy and Hat Trick

When it comes to doing it better with offering virtual excursions in Second Life, revising old sites and replacing vanished ones is NOT enough. You have to think about what sites you are offering, their content, the spoken and implicit messages they teach, and what needs they fulfill. That is why Virtual Excursions at vStarkState would be an epic fail even if all its sites were working.

The original nine sites taught uplifting, moral messages, bits of history or were city simulations. Some included obvious nuisences like Berlin 1920's dress code. I'm not sure any of those sites connected with what students might want. They taught nothing about Second Life's commercial aspects or even its sex/romance aspects. I'm not advocating subculture gawking...ahem tourism, but there is value in seeing various approaches to making a Second Life, including educational possibilities.

There are of course a few ground rules for use in picking Do It Better sites.

1. The site has to offer free content/activity. Window shopping counts as free content under some circumstances, so too do clubs with tip jars, and sandboxes, even though it costs 10L to upload textures. Likewise having to put payment information on file does not count as actually costing anything. This means that adult sites are in theory fine.
   
   
2. The site needs to teach something either about Second Life and/or "real life." From this standpoint quality of the content and interactivity count.
   
   
3. Most role plays are off limits because unless you agree to join, you feel like an outsider. Wearing a guest badge, having to adhere to a strict dress code etc... are all high end nuiscences.
   
   
4. The nuiscence level in general has to be low to nonexistent. Nuiscences include strict dress codes, getting hit up for virtual sex or money, heavy use of ban lines and security orbs, excessive lag.
   
   
5. Sites should reflect a variety of geographical areas, ethnicities, subcultures (I hate that word), and/or educational discipline. Having nine city sites or even five of them really won't Do It Better!

   Naturally, Iyoba and I set out exploring to fill this year's Do It Better Board. Our first stop was TOV Korea where this engineer runs Starlit's Rollercoaster where Iyoba had ridden the broom. The island also has a Korean museum and lots of amusements big and small, including a Korean general store with a few gacha (Think gum ball machines that sell other merchandise) machines.

   Of course Iyoba's favorite part of the island is the Witch's Hideout which includes the amazing roller coaster that of course defies the laws of physics. It is not quite the Dead Coaster of now long-gone Mirai, but it comes close, and the TOV Korea Community Center's museum made the Explore Second Life Spread Sheet.

   We also had another lead of sorts that took us to the the Grand Canyon. Iyoba had all ready climbed Mount Everest next door a few weeks ago, but we did not expect to find so much to do at the Grand Canyon. This T-bar and its vine-climb (Yes the two go together so avatarim can try them over and over again!) are a classic example of quality, free content/activity. There are also Zodiac boats, hang gliding, sky walks etc... The landscape is, to say the least, unusual for Second Life. Most places re tropical and sometimes mountain or temperate. The high desert plateau is more than a novelty.

   The sim is also modern and monetized. Every so often one encounters a private residence, a nice log cabin, surrounded by not-so-nice ban lines. There are also stores, and a club. The sex at Grand Canyon is discreet, and covered with a thick veneer of respectability. Grand Canyon shows that it is possible for the market to cater to what more conservative avatarim want without having to throw in a dose of proselytizing.

   Iyoba's two favorite activities at the Grand Canyon were the vine climb/T-bar and the canoe, but as a seasoned avie with a "thing against houses" she is in the minority when totally blissed out by outdoor adventure.

   Most avatarim want to come inside, and while laggy rez-a-prefab sims or model homes for rent might be the answer to their prayers, the Second Life deity has bestowed something even more friendly (besides Japanese cafes which are very homelike), Plusia Ars Island.

   Plusia Ars Island combines romantic and lavish architecture, a generally romatic atmosphere, plenty of furnished indoor space, and yes, of course art in the form of larger than life sculpture.

   Most of the art is statues. There are some paintings. Often there are building size installations. Most of the art is at least somewhat realistic which makes it easy to appreciate and enjoy. It was also harder to build than a few tortured, scripted prims.

   And exhibits like this hall of fire (pit of Hell???) earned Plusia Ars Island a place on the Explore SL Spread Sheet! It appeared that both our bushwhackign and this year's Do It Better Project were bearing fruit and cross fertilizing, if I may mix metaphors.

   And even this One Who Thinks She Knows, who like her avie is fairly unimpressed by indoor sights, loved this tropical flower arrangement. Iyoba wondered how good the photo of it would look on this blog. You, can judge for yourself.

   Iyoba also worries that we are filling up our Do It Better board too quickly. I told her not to worry. We'll be kissing plenty of proverbial frogs after finding three handsome princes in a row. So far we have:
   

   1. TOV Korea -- Home of an amusement park, a museum, a witch's castle and more.
      
      
   2. The Grand Canyon So much to do and so much fun in a novel and beautiful setting!
      
      
   3. Plusia Ars Island -- Romance, Art, Architecture, and Furniture all in one place.

   That's three down, and we have room for six more choices. Expect a few holdovers from last year, but not very many. Our theme is revision and exploration. Learn, grow, explore, and practice what you preach!

   Eileen H. Kramer with help from Iyoba BatOni -- October 7, 2014

Inspiration, Deception, Betrayal, and We're Going to Do it Better

This is a very long title because a lot is happening, to the One Who Thinks She Knows in "real life" and to me inworld. That means sometimes there is more going on than we can blog, but at the time upcoming jury duty and Rosh HaShannah had the effect of inspiring my One. She drew the texture for these hubbard squash on poles while she was at the laundromat on Sunday. I'm glad I don't have to go to a laundromat, but my One did not mind. These are as far as we know the only hubbard squash in Second Life. They are in nets to keep them from ripping down their vines, since they can easily weigh more than five pounds (2.5kg) each.

My One and I were determined to teach Celia, who thought she was growing the last corn in Second Life how to run a friendly, fertile garden in the LEA5 Sandbox. We got something that vaguely resembles soil down on our platforms made with the Godawful Skirt Sculptie, and my One figured out how to make corn octagons and we had a lot of other garden plants that fit the Native American theme.

We also have healing herbs, sunflowers (Yes, they come in pink, actually raspberry), flowering tobacco, amaranth, beans, squash, and corn. It's not just the three sisters. It's one big happy family!

Unfortunately, the big happy family has to go back in inventory before my One Who Thinks She Knows goes to sleep tonight. She's never around for Sandbox Cleaning and due to Yom Kippur nothing is going back up again until Saturday or Sunday. As I said, we lead a busy life. Anyway, we got our garden planted and went over to see how our competition was doing.

Celia, sad to say, is out of the agriculture business and into forestry. Inside this round guard house lies a hidden forest of one big tree, and the most elegant use of jungle walls that my One and I have ever seen. It is impressive even if it doesn't solve a nonproblem. I still like to come inside and bask in the greenery. Way too much of Second Life is a desert, not that deserts are bad when they actually look like deserts, but there are days I feel the dust gritting against my teeth, and think someone paints the grass green.

Hanging out in the LEA5 Sandbox is good for both my One and me. The people are sociable, friendly, and interesting in the way of builders. People other places are... My One still says she is friends with Salaud, Generalissimo of the Beggars' Army. When he invited us to his usual hangout on New Vice City1, called Club Illuminati, we jumped at the chance. When Salaud asked for money, she gave some to him. He's had some issues with SL Marketplace. Haven't we all at some point? My One enjoys his company and is a sympathetic soul. If you want to visit Club Illuminatus, arrive on New Vice City1 all ready flying and then fly upward about ninty meters. Club Illuminatus occupies the southeastern corner of the island.

Then my One noticed the posters. They are Salaud's style of mashup. He has a fondness for Queen Elizabeth and for pomp, circumstance, gilded ornamentation, and ostentation combined with a reckless disregard for proportion. Anyway, my One wondered how Salaud could build if he had no land. We ran an About Land, found the group, found that Salaud and his army were members, joined, and had our answer.

Well, we don't really have the answer. That is what my One Who Thinks She Knows said. Someone could have taken pity on Salaud or just likes him well enough to give him building rights in a corner of the island. Maybe he rents the land. Maybe he pays for it in work. Whatever it is, he has more land at his disposal than we do and that includes both Stinky Stinky and There is no Adult in the Room, which we gave to Shaka.

My One had me send several messages to Salaud telling him that she was happy to still be his friend, but that she wanted to reconsider financial arrangements. I suspect Salaud will be gone before my One has time to turn around, and speaking of people being gone. Saturday night we logged in to find out that we'd been kicked out of a group called Hobo Junction and that the Hobo Island Sandbox was now CLOSED to nongroup members. The ejection is not personal. The group owner closed the group and kicked out everyone, but it still left both My One and I feeling raw. Here we sulk atop a pile of palettes on a new sim called Brasil Rio Favela which does not really resemble a favela. I've been to sims that do, and if one would stick around we'd put it on the DO IT BETTER list.

And yes we'd recently visited the Virtual Excursion Center on VStarkState and realized that nothing had changed. That isn't saying much because it can't get much worse. It's really pretty simple at first glance. If you don't revise any list of links in Second Life well then...they rot, and the Virtual Excursion Center is a classic example of malign neglect.

This poster illustrates the first big problem with the links to in the Virtual Excursion Center. Four out of the five simply no longer exist. That is why my One greyed out the posters and faded them. Of the remaining five, the choices are questionable. 1920's Berlin is a role play with a very strict dress code. I wonder if many college students know enough European history to know what the Weimar Republic is and to find it attractive. The movie, Cabaret, was made a generation ago. Neither the Anglican Cathedral nor Virtual Ability offer a lot to do. Virtual Ability offers a bit more. Romanum is also a role play though one can walk around in civilian dress and explore. Walking into a role play where you are a nonparticipant feels like walking uninvited into a party. Walking into a mall to windowshop is a lot easier. That leaves one decent destination and my One is not sure that the US Holocaust Museum would be her first choice. We're going to discuss more of this in our next entries as we attempt to DO IT BETTER!

Iyoba BatOni with help from Eileen H. Kramer -- October 2, 2014