Are We Ready for a New Beginning?

My One Who Thinks She Knows chases after fame and fortune. She almost catches it. She breaks her back getting ready for her mother at Thanksgiving, which is why this blog is so sparse, that and a conference she attended out of town, and then.... there is the hype she believs it.

She even believed the hype about Virtual Mountain, which is why we went there. The trees were all in leaf. The wonderful colors cheered up my One, who is always out of sorts as all of you know. She got some great pictures of me around the construction site, but a single web site on a prim with a video, pretty scenery, and a half built alternative energy facility just aren't enough to even make it to the Explore SL Spread Sheet, let alone the Do It Better 2013 Roster.

So it was on to Ulster Incore. This is a site very similar to Virtual Rosewood. Both describe one or more massacres, but there the similarity ends. The Troubles in Northern Ireland ended less than twenty ago, and unlike the Rosewood Massacre, they have no clear victims and villains. There is innocent blood on both sides' hands. The Troubles also have roots going back several centuries, and ultimately into England's Reformation and Ireland's lack of a Reformation. As with Rosewood, both factions live within driving distance of one another, and Wikipedia says the existing peace is "uneasy."

All of this makes for a heady display, presented with a light hand that lets the images that "visualize the conflict" speak for themselves. This memorial is very much to those still in the fight. I believe it is Catholic/Irish Republican Army, but neither my One nor I am perfectly sure.

This second memorial mural is also Irish Republic Army/Catholic. It is not the mural of peaceable victims. Even its caption is that of fighters. My One found it heartening. If you want to see the caption written on the mural, click on it.

Why then did the wonderful and nuanced display of Ulster Incore NOT make the Do It Better 2013 Roster? Virtual Rosewood and duplication is part of the answer. The other part is that to appreciate the Troubles and understand them, you need to know some European history/Western studies. Yes, the Troubles happened to people who share your language if you are an American (or one of your languages.) and probably your religion, but sectarian/ethnic warfare (with the VERY BIG EXCEPTION of lynching and anti-immigrant sentiment) is not something that has occured in the United States in living memory. Virtual Rosewood though smaller, and more conventional in its approach, is easier for newbies to understand.

That left Electrobit City, and the moment we got there we just knew... We'd been there before, but we'd forgotten how absolutely complete the artistry was that surrounded us. This sim's creators call it eight-bit art. It's closer to a two hundred and fifty-six color palette. There is some photorealistic texturing, but it is mostly flat work and much of it hard edge. It is everywhere and it is completely interactive and immersive.

The landing point is constrained. You can not fly. Cam and sit will do you no good, yet you can reach heights if you plan your jumps carefully. Jumping is one of Second Life's best kept secrets. As a newbie I used to jump fences on NMC islands. I taught other newbies to jump the fly-over fence in the "Learning Curve" newbie course on the now-defunct Info Island International, but there is jumping and then there is jumping to reach a goal high above the ground like this platform. Let's just say this was an achievement worthy of a selfie.

And yes there is a bit of gamification and danger on Electrobit City. Chester the Orc looks to kill you, but you don't die. Instead you find yourself dunked in the drink. You need to turn off your swimmer, and you can teleport to the Info-Hub and try again, or if you prefer, you can go relax in the club, which is being redecorated in early computer. This makes my One nostalgic.

And if being chased by orcs and finding gold on platforms is not your thing, you can always visit Sector 8, which is open to the public but under construction, and totally safe. The rain forest with bamboo and mushrooms, looks realler and far more beautiful than most vegetation in Second Life. Who would have thought tranquility came in only two hundred and fifty-six colors, give or take a few. And do I have to say we have a final site for our Do it Better 2013 Roster! Congratulationsns Electrobit City!

So this leaves us with the question: "What next?" Well, we need to go back to bushwacking, and we've started a bit here and there. My One also misses the Lily Frogs. I miss them too, but I did not want her to replace them. It was disrespectful! She finally saw reason and created a new moving critter, the Honey Do Aphid. You can see it's untextured. She is having qualms about not being able to distribute this bug because she made it with demo sculpties. She has another idea, or we could just make our bugs for ourselves. What we will do with our Lily Frog memorial is an open question. My One does not want to destroy the eggs, but Dragoness Rage has not been inworld for six weeks, and did not respond to our notes. It is over, but there is always a new beginning.

Iyoba BatOni with help from Eileen H. Kramer -- November 26, 2013

Booted, Disappointed, but not Disorganized

The Do It Better 2013 Roster is taking forever to finish because my One Who Thinks She Knows is beyond out of sorts. She is a mess. Two nights ago, she held up everything so we could lick our metaphorical wounds. Our wounds needed licking because late Monday night we had a very uncivil encounter with a bouncer on Q8 Royal. I know the rule about spoilers, but I also know the rule about links.

You probably can guess the rest, but it was late. We were all moving slowly. My One wanted to go sleep but she also wanted to decompress and wind down and see what Q8 Royal looked like now that it seemed to have avatarim on it. Off we went, and we found, an avie. She asked us who we were. She asked us in UPPERCASE. That is screaming. When we did not reply fast enough, the avie said: "SPEAK." We greeted her. She asked what was up. At this point neither of us could resist so we said that the sky was up and reminded the poor bouncer that it was a joke. I also asked if there was a dance, since there was a dance floor on the sim, and my One loved the music. The bouncer replied gruffly that there was no dance. My One said she needed to wash dishes and go silent. The bouncer said this was fine.

The next thing we knew, we were back at The Honey Hut, booted and banned, for no good reason. And yes we were banned for a reason, but that reason is one of several particularly bad choices. I'm short. I was conservatively dressed. I have a Hebrew last name. I don't speak a lick of Arabic. I was slow to respond. My One made a lame joke.

There is not much you can do when you are banned. Sage voices on the forums counsel the aggrieved that there are many other fish in the sea. This is jejeune advice. It still hurts, but my One believes in the advice, so we needed a replacement.

My One reasoned that if we let this ban set us back, we'd lose our courage to explore new sims. After all... I don't feel like repeating the sage advice. "There is no justice" is a better way of putting it. Q8 Royal's loss is partially WiFi's gain. WiFi is another monumental Arab sim, this time built in the style of either Venice or Southern Spain or a combination of the two. It's a fine mythical Europe with marble and bronze sculptures, fountains, contained fire, bridges, archways, comfortable seats, and willow trees, that my One and I positively loved.

Alas, WiFi is a fantastic place to visit, but besides walking, balloon rides, and group games (some in Arabic), it does not offer much to do. My One and I love to walk. Most newbies don't. Just being pretty or even gorgeous is not enough for a place on the Do It Better 2013 Roster.

I told my One we needed to get back to work. Off we headed to the Moya Archipelago. My One dreaded the place. It is huge, four islands of art by Patrick Moya. That meant a lot to explore, but we both remembered how Moya's art fascinated and beguiled us, and how the sim looked so different from the rest of Second Life.

It doesn't look so different any more, but that is a very, good thing. What makes Moya's art stand out is flat work. Flat work is any texture that does not look photo-realistic. It can include painted or printed fabrics, murals, hard edge plain colored or patterned surfaces etc...

My One uses flatwork to make a lot of the fabrics for my clothes and also to create contrasting collars (sometiems). We've used murled (really muraled) walls in countless projects. Painted tiles in mosaics are flat work too.

The first problem with the the Moya Archipelago is that most of the art is not that interactive. Yes, it moves, and this DJ set up had a dance ball that let me pose as a DJ. And in the picture below I am dancing with a sheep in an exhibit that is supposed to be a satire of Picasso's villa. Having my own dance animations comes in handy, and my One is good at taking pictures of me having a good time.

The second more serious problem with the Moya Archipelago is that it is too big. It is not too big and empty. It is too big for the artist to have to be selective and show only his best. The work, some of which is excellent, often gets repetitive. The little bald men and the dancing sheep and the grinding gears get the message across once, are funny twice, and then... And worst of all, a lot of the art is a constant exercise in ego. After all, how many times can you look at an artist's name? In Second Life with content, it is not what you know but who you know and who funds you.

Of course my One had the solution. She said: "Electrobit City does flat work so much better! Let's list that in the Do It Better Roster instead!" I replied that my One was making a mess of things as usual. You Ones should never get this out of sorts. We avies have to live with you and put up with you. Life is just not fair sometimes. I begged my One to get organized. She promised she would. You know, I think that my One Who Thinks She Knows listens to me sometimes. We have a new chart at the bottom of the blog.

Iyoba Bat Oni who helps out Eileen H. Kramer -- November 21, 2013

One, Please Wait!

It is not great secret. My One Who Thinks She Knows is frequently out of sorts. Lately, she has been worse than usual, to the point of making her poor self sick. This of course has partially derailed our Do It Better 2013 Project. My One needed to go for a walk, and I needed to walk with her. We went to Lettuce, and immediately my One Who Thinks She Knows fell in love with the place. It is a beautiful build, and that is an understatement! Nearly every texture is original.

The trees are even original, and that means a lot to my One who makes trees and all sorts of plants. Trees are Lettuce' theme. They are bigger than avie scale. Their stumps are plateaus. Their leaves shimmer. Their roots obstruct. And Lettuce is also a wetland sim. There is tall grass. There are not cat tails; for Lettuce is Japanese and the sim stays to its fantasy theme or perhaps ecological integrity!.

Then slowly my One's love began to sour. Lettuce is still a great place for us to relax, but my One started asking difficult questions: "What is there to do here?" There really isn't much to do except walk around. That's not good enough for the Do It Better in 2013 Roster. Then my One started asking about other sites on the roster, and others we had picked out. "What do any of those sites do? What do they teach?"

Then my One wanted to include a site that sent home a lesson for students, not an unintended lesson but one that shook their emotions and gave them pause. And of course, my One knew just the place, Virtual Rosewood. She had even written about it before.

Virtual Rosewood's message is seven short words: "It can happen here, and it did!" In January of 1923, a simple lynching blossomed into a "race riot" which turned into a massacre during which white vigilantes killed four innocent victims and destroyed the black town of Rosewood, Florida. No court would find justice for the victims, and the story of the "race riot" did not become well known until the 1980's.

Virtual Rosewood is a meticulously researched museum with explanations about how data was collected and links to a web site with more information. What makes Virtual Rosewood a site worth including in the 2013 Do It Better Roster is that descendents of the vitims and perpetrators probably still live within less than a day's drive of one another.

This means the wounds, like many of those of racism, are barely healed over and still pretty raw. We may have driven certain words and ideas of polite conversation, according to my One, but they are still said in more private places or translated into code words. As my One's mother has told her, "just scratch the surface." Students need to "scratch the surface" just a bit at Virtual Rosewood.

This leaves us with only one place open on the Do It Better 2013 roster. My One had decided to substitute Hanako Land for the amusement park at Mirai. We have a lot of amusement parks and there are duplication issues between these two sims. Of course my One was still wretchedly out of sorts Saturday night/early Sunday morning, and she decided we should visit a two day old sim called Q8 Royal Q8. My One looked at it's map on Grid Survey and she said: "Iyoba we have to check this out."

Q8 Royal Q8 was an Arab gaming sim until one looks more carefully. My One had figured that Q8 was Kuwait, and she was looking for monumental, Arab architecture, but then she fell in love with the stairways, granite tiles, mosaics, luxury furnishings. Then she told me what she wanted to do. I cried "No!". I reminded her that most of what there was to do here was walking around. That's not enough. Second Life is full of pretty sims.

She countered that the sim taught about contemporary, Arab culture. Look at this fire. Most fires in Second Life just burn on the beach or ground, but on Arab sims, the fire is in a pit, metal container, or in this case a ring of stones. There is also extra firewood in the background. In a dry climate, you contain fire or suffer the consequences. For some reasons, Arabs have never heard of wood stoves or Franklin stoves. These provide heat with safety and efficiency.

My One countered that avatarim could dance. We clicked on the radio to great Arab dance music. It was a radio station out of either Lebanon or Morocco (or maybe Tunisia). The announcer spoke French, but the music was usually in Arabic. Arabs don't need house music. Those Middle Eastern rhythms are full of fire. This would be a bit of culture just right for students, my One thought. She also liked the sim's ecological integrity. She liked that it was culturally relevant with gathering places and no alochol. There were a few new-sim bugs. Some of the sofas lacked sitting animations, but the sitting animations that were there worked. Avatarim could also rezz an inner tube and float all over the water part of the sim. This meant they could get in the water without a swimmer hud, which I have but most avies don't..

The radio, group games, great architecture, and inner tubes (also the ecological integrity. Don't forget that and the fact that sims with this kind of platform architecture inspired the Ovi-Ring at Stinky Stinky) had my One making up her mind. I said "No! It's not fair. You picked out three other sims and let's at least go there first before we stick Q8 Royal Q8 into the last slot of the Do It Better 2013 Roster! Reluctantly my One, who sees reason, realized it might be her mood and the late hour talking. We're down to one spot, and there are three contenders left. I also deserve some sandbox time. Sometimes it takes an avie to talk sense to a One Who Thinks She Knows. You Ones out there reading this blog, listen to your avatarim. We are calmer and more rational and we sometimes think for ourselves, and know what we are talking about.

Iyoba BatOni with help from Eileen H. Kramer -- November 18, 2013

Great Hype, A Great Walk, And an Also Ran

My One Who Thinks She Knows said: "No spoilers Iyoba!" She's not writing this blog. I am, and besides if you read it enough, you know where all this is going. It started out on Cait's World and a few other places. Sideroad Blues was supposed to be beautiful. It was the place to go. It's not bad looking.

In fact, in some ways it is a very well made sim. It's the little touches that my One likes to photograph.

It also has lots of nostalgia for a world that existed when my One was either a child or right before she was born. These pumps have a creature on them that my One used to call "Flying Red Dragon" back in 1965 when she was three years old. Her father told her it was "flying red horse." My One told her father that horses don't fly but dragons do. My One has a love-hate relationship with nostalgia, especially nostalgia that is really before her time and not what she remembers.

Flying red horses or dragons notwithstanding, my One does not drive a car in "real life," and no one in her family ever even thought of riding a motorcycle. Motorcycles scare my One in "real life." They also scared her parents who had an outboard motor and then later an electric boat motor in their garage or basement. Small motor boats were a part of her childhood. Motorcycles were just beyond the pale. This means my One feels very little relatioship to to what this sim represents, and coming from the Northeastern United States makes finding common ground even harder.

Of course, we were on Sideroad Blues to test it to see if it could ascend from the Circle of Amazing Nine Semifinalists to earn one of the two, coveted seats on the Do It Better 2013 Roster! Part of that testing was for social tolerance. I stand between 4'8" and 5'0" wear dresses, and look nothing like a big, bad biker type. Worse yet, I don't own a motorcycle because I don't like them. I do have a fine, safety bike that my One modified so I could ride it while wearing a long prim skirt but not a turtle neck. You have to remember to put the neck-neck back on when you get done. Here I am riding undisturbed. If you click the image, you'll even see that the track is timing my laps, but the race is not to the swift, or so I believe.

Sideroad Blues is an extremely tolerant and friendly sim. I came in to dance, and no one harassed me. I rode a bicycle on the biker roads, and no one bothered me. I visited the Heartbreak Hotel, and there were no ban lines or security orbs. There was even this lovely, old fashioned shower. My One loves stuff like this. She asked if I wanted to take a bath. I touched the shower. No water came out.

That should tell you something right there, and something you all ready know if you read this blog. For all its attention to detail, tolerance, and the fun we had riding and walking and exploring, Sideroad Blues is not a sim with a lot to do. The shower did not work. I could not sit or lie down on the bed. I did not try the toilet. There are roads, a working dance ball with choice of dances, place to rez vehicles or place to walk or use a wearable vehicle if that is what you have. People don't mind short avatarot. Sometimes it's nice to use the Hebrew plural, but you know that is not enough to make a spot on the Do It Better 2013 Roster. Quite simply, there is not enough to do on this sim unless you like to walk and explore. A lot of it is as lonely and empty as this upper story apartment. One can only stare so much outside the window. Sorry Sideroad Blues.

My One Who Thinks She Knows and I had originally planned our visit to Arab Land as a kind of escape and cooling off after big, nasty, intolerant bikers at Sideroad Blues chased us away and perhaps banned us. Of course we weren't chased or banned. I'll probably go back again to ride my bike. The terrain on Arab Land is not particularly bike friendly. It has too many wooden bridges, steps, and narrow paths. It is still fun. I love walking. My One loves walking with me. This beautiful, covered bridge is some of what you will see.

Arab Land is one of Axxo Erin's builds. That should say enough right there. Detail is this build's middle name and so is culturally relevant, though I'll get to that. This is a fruit plate on the beach. What you don't see is cocktails. You don't even see mocktails or a bottle of wine or champagne on ice. Axxo is Saudi Arabian, and as a Moslem, alcohol is off limits.

Change is also this build's middle name. A build either changes incrementally or it dies. In the case of Arab Land, the sim has gotten greener. I miss the red rocks a bit, but if you want red sand you can go to Educatica or Marriott Library 2. Green is also a lovely color.

The great attraction of Arab Land is walking, walking, and more walking. This rope bridge sways between the two highest peaks. I really needed a rope bridge walk, and so did my One especially since California State Long Beach flattened its mountains. With no mountains to climb there are no more rope bridge walks. A rope bridge is a thing of beauty!

Arab Land is also a sim that makes visitors think. This is part of the camp site that has now moved to high ground. Visitors may lounge on pillows, play games, but there is also a water supply in a barrel that is piped to the grey thing that is the heating tank. There are bowls for sponge bathing and making ablutions (and of course washing after you use the outhouse!). The outhouse is the brown building, and it has a squat toilet inside it. What makes this picture interesting is what you don't see! You don't see a shower or private washing stall. You also see only one outhouse, even though this is a large camp area. It took me a while to notice what was not here, but in the United States, you would have two facilities and screened off areas for washing and bathing because, both men and women would be camping together. While Arab Land is a very liberal sim, much like any other sim, Axxo left out an interesting detail.

And I will not lie. Arab Land is one of two sims that my One and I go to hang out on, when she is at the end of her "out of sorts rope" or the rope has broken off. The other sim where we go to lick our wounds is UAA Seawolves. Even what is left of it serves a nice purpose. My One says she'd send any one who needed to walk in a beautiful place to Arab Land (or to Bristol Bay for much the same reasons.) Sometimes it is good just to walk around, but we learned long ago in the Forums that my One is unusual. Someone said to her: "You're the only person I know who once she could fly, decided she'd rather take a walk." Knowing this, My One says she can't include Arab Land on the Do It Better 2013 Roster. Axxo, your build is as beautiful as ever, but the competition is just too fierce. Sorry.

Iyoba BatOni with help from Eileen H. Kramer -- November 13, 2013

Amusing Ourselves in Hanako Land

Hanako Land is not an amusement park. My One Who Thinks She Knows says that this is the key to understanding this location. The purpose of an amusement park and its rides is passive motion. An avie like me, straps myself in, touches the ride, hits the "go" button, or waits a tense, ten seconds for the thing to start and then... Sometimes my One ends up motion sick. Sometimes I defy the laws of phsyics. Often the ride rattles nd lurches. We both hope it ends up where it is supposed to go and does not end up hanging on the tracks. Believe me, that has happened. It did not happen in Hanako Land.

Yes, there are rides on Hanako Land. There are two ferris wheels (one called the Sky Lounge), the Dragon in the Sky (coaster), and numerous trains that you can rezz and ride to move speedily through the attractions, but the rides are all either short and too fast or too slow. None made my One hang on tight or blink with a queasy gut. They serve a different purpose, and it is not the purpose of an amusement park.

On Hanako Land, passive motion and a quick ride are just one of your choices. You can also teleport to prearranged spots and follow a tour, or you can explore on your own. The genius of the island's build is that it supports all three modes, and lets avies and their Ones from any culture bring their own story to make a fulfilling experience. My One says that a Japanese avie and One team would not choose to experience or actually experience Hanako Land the same way we did, and even other American avie-One teams would see a completely different island. The image by the way is the large ferris wheel or sky lounge. It serves drinks, has padded couches, looks like a huge jeweled box, and moves incredibly, slowly. It's a kinetic sculpture not a ride.

First my One really appreciates that Hanako Land is a living, commercial sim. How viable it is economically is any one's guess, but you can have fun their window shopping by seeing what goods Japanese Ones create for avies. Chief among these was a boiling cauldron that serves as a fine butt warmer. It makes my One think of Franklin stoves.

My One has a vested interest and expertise in making both garden plants and beehives. This bee hive really looks a lot more like a paper wasp nest. My One says that the Japanese use a variant of the Warré Hive instead of the Langstroth Hive popular in the United States. My One did some research on bee hives and thinks she may be making more of them. This means we may not get Frobbies. Keep your fingers crossed if you believe that way.

And my One really loved this sculpture of a woman playing a traditional, Japanese instrument in front of a store called Milky World. Don't ask me about Milky this, that, or the other. My One thinks it is a strange translation of creamy white or maybe it has something to do with the beauty of female breasts. She is not sure. A cat's white fur is milky in English. Very pale, human, skin is sometimes milky as well, but milky as a name for a retail establishment, unless it's a dairy store (and even then we'd probably use the word dairy or milk without the "y") is just off sounding.

My One is very much of two minds about the foliage and plants on Hanako Land. These trees are anything but "out of a box." The pinks and yellows complete with small flowers and/or fruit are amazing.

At the shrine, a hidden bonus for any one able to walk independently and just step off the path and climb an amazing hill, all the foliage is green. It is harmonious. It works, but the gardens are gone.

Of course the Japanese builders of Hanako Land lose all their imagination and sense of naturalness when they bring their floral design to the palace. Goodbye ecological integrity. Tulips bloom alongside summer flowers. There are no wildflowers, and roses like this make my poor One see red. She says they look like funeral flowers. In an American build the roses would be bushes in the earth or they would climb a trellis or even drape a pergola. There would also be wildflowers or cultivated flowers naturalized in semi-random clumps. This is a BIG cultural difference and one my One really notices!

Of course sometimes cultural differences are fun! This building is supposed to be made of cake. There are bread ovens inside that are just perfect for warming an avie, and any one is welcome to sit on the bicycle outside. The walls don't look like cake though. The big holes in the crumb, according to my One indicate a yeast dough. She says the house is made of challah or Jewish, egg bread and the pink stuff is raspberry, marshmellow fluff, which she loathes. She loved the challah house, though.

The best part about exploring Hanako Land was that when you were in the palace and subterranean house of horrors, you could stop, turn back, leave the path, and not get lost, trapped, or stuck in a soft spot. In fact, you were likely to find something beautiful for your efforts, like these twenty four bells on the third floor. There is a fourth floor and a roof to the palace as well. You can walk around it all day. You can climb the bell towers. You can walk around the porches and back in through different doors. You can climb stairs that are hidden or open. There are pictures. There is furniture. There is even a grand piano.

But the best part of the castle is the underwater "Strange Course" as Hanako Land's builders call it. It is a horror house that includes everyone's demons and nightmares. Monsters like zombies, who are enslaved dead (in this case enslaved bots), are not one of mine. I was kind to all the monsters. I did not mind if they were ugly. Here I am bowing to the zombie. I apologized to the yggdrassil tree and made friends with the mummy.

The room that left me sad and scaird was the pit of toxic sludge and garbage in which mutant nautilloids that were still very beautiful swam. Too bad Ones had to sully the place with their "city waste."

And here are the last butterflies (really cecropia moths) stuck on an underwater brick wall in the pool of toxic pollution. They are drowned. They will never fly again. I am not sure how they got under the water. My One and I both think it was global warming.

Of course the lesson to learn from the house of horrors is that in the end you have to understand and walk past your night mares after you have learned from them. This friendly nightmare, guarded a flight of stairs that led to the surface and a brick wall!

When I touched the brick ceiling, it slid open. It was a trap door. I emerged onto the back porch of the palace. Palace and house of horrors were all one. There were secret passages for those willing to explore. Here I am looking back on where I came. I felt elated to be on the porch again, not because I had been scaird but because I had found something secret and special. Others should also find their own secret and special stories on Hanako Land. I don't have to tell you that it is still in the running for those coveted last two spots on our Do It Better in 2013 roster.

Iyoba BatOni with help from Eileen H. Kramer -- November 5, 2013

A Victim of Location and No one was Home

We need to start this new entry for a new month on our old blog with the right attitude. My One Who Thinks She Knows who has crazy ideas sometimes, but a good heart on most days even changed the title over our tale of woe to get the message across. It's an old cliche, but a picture speaks a thousand words. We have lots of pictures in this blog. We hope they help me get our point across.

One sim that did not make it to our coveted Circle of Nine (Now a circle of seven)semifinalists for the two last slots in our Do It Better 2013 roster was Jordan First. My One and I have a long history with the sim. We used to watch our Arab friends play Russian roulette, parchisis, and social Xyngo there. We rented a retail stall in their sky mall.

We lost a lot of money on that sad, little stall. My One always chooses friends for landlords. Twice she has watched malls get run spectacularly into the ground. Neither time has she been happy about it, though she is not angry at Jordan First's management. My One swears...that she is through with retailing.

And she is glad the mall has gone. Jordan First has matured. It is a symphony in browns. There is a plateau with two walkways surrounded by a beach with tumbleweeds and driftwood aplenty. There is even a mockup up Petra hidden in a cave with a stepping stone path. Right now it is autumn on the plateau, and one way to my One Who Thinks She Knows' heart is ecological integrity!

Jordan First is truly a fine place to walk around. It is hospitable (no banlines!) and culturally sensitive. Though there is a bar in the club, there are no cocktails on the picnick blanket. Instead cafe au lait and espresso are on the menu.

Unfortunately, except for a few group games, and an empty club, there is not much to do on Jordan First except walk around or pose for photo shoots. The sim is empty a lot of the time. Some of this is probably due to a seven hour difference between the Middle East and the Eastern United States. The sim is worth a walk, but not any where near worth including on the Do It Better Roster for 2013. There are just too few slots.

Another site that will not make the Do It Better 2013 Roster is Windsheim Zwolle's Chinese City. My One and I both had high hopes for this site because we had met the creator who told us to come back when we could buy fish in the market, though what I would do for the poor virtual fish that would just flop around in my basket was beyond me.

I did not have to worry. We could still buy nothing in the market, even though there was now a meat department selling steaks cut to order with that amazing clever. My One Who Thinks she knows sure has an eye for detail!

And sometimes detail hides in plain sight like the architecture that is anything but cookie-cutter. These blue-grey bricks are originals as is this lovely round windowed walls and the sturdy two story buildings.

But the problem with Windsheim Zwolle's Chinese City is that expectations that fueled a gorgeous build have exceeded follow through. There was an art museum behind the temple. This is what is left of it.

Likewise, very little in Windsheim Zwolle's Chinese City is interactive. This gorgeous, red lantern does not turn on and off. The books in the school do not give links when touched. There is no where to get a Coke or cup of tea, forget a flopping fish or a freshly cleaved steak. Bars that dispense drinks and machines that dispense snacks are fairly commonplace in Second Life, but not in Windsheim Zwolle's Chinese City.

Strangely enough, the rickshaws actually worked, though my One Who Thinks She Knows, who can be very compassionate most of the time, was very careful to go easy on the driver. We nearly tipped over, but we did not fly out of the city into the ocean like last time. We even helped the driver return her vehicle to the parking lot. It felt good to be a good citizen. It is sad that the rickshaws are pretty much the only thing that does anything on a beautiful and empty build. No, Windsheim Zwolle's Chinese City will not make the 2013 Do It Better Roster, but it is still worth a visit.

My One Who Thinks She Knows and I did not think that Primary was a sim worth visiting, but what is left of the MagSL Archipelago is wonderfully contiguous, so we were going to walk to Hanako Land which is in the Supreme Cricle of Semi-Finalists. Both of us figured we would just be passing through Primary and Nippori in short order. Nippori is half empty and depopulated, and we remembered Primary as a run down bunch of stores selling junk, a poor relation to Mirai best given less than a quick once over.

We both forgot that sims mature Primary was dressed up for autumn with lovely golden leaf trees and this bit of detail near the roots of one of them.

And then there were the cafes and the onsen. An onsen is a Japanese hot bath, and I love these things. I wish we had had time to stop and get warm, but of course we found that....

The sandbox that was closed on Mirai had moved to Primary. Forget the trip to Hanako Land. We'd do that another time. I needed a new dress.

Now, you may ask why Primary is not in the Stupendous Circle of Nine Semifinalists and why it had absolutely no shot at making the Do It Better 2013 roster? The answer is location, location, location. It is right next to Mirai. Mirai is all ready on the list. Primary would be a duplicate. Still, it's worth a visit. Just stop by when seeing Mirai. And yes we eventually made it to Hanako Land, and my One and I have a lot to write about that place.

Iyoba BatOni with help from Eileen H. Kramer -- November 4, 2013

Let's take a look at our current Do It Better 2013 Roster

Eileen and Iyoba's Do It Better 2013 Roster
Name of Place	Why it Qualifies
The State Fair at Morrill	It has great rides; fun games; a huge, educational, archipelago nearby and also the Avatar Fitness Club near by with hard, house music and a crowd.
Hanako Land	Interesting architecture, amusement park rides that are kinetic sculpture, a four story castle, and a house of horrors that is sure to have your nightmare waiting for you.
Shinrei Ueno Hospital	This is a unique build with shadows, darkness, urban exploration, and ghosts. It also is an abandoned mental hospital with all the assocations this brings.
Fiteiro Cultural	Two clubs, art exhibits, innovative builds and architecture, sculpture, an old Dutch village and more!
Towson Innovation Lab	Art that comes alive and is always updated plus a well run, public, sandbox.
Soho New York	Home of the Cyclone and gateway to a variety of museums and galleries, temperate nature walks, the largest train on estate land, and the second longest ski run in Second Life. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Portugal Porto	Enter the Old City to see a Southern European fishing port as old as the Roman Empire. Visit four clubs. Shop in the stores, or just go for a walk. Unlike most of Second Life, this sim is populated but almost never crowded enough to crash or lag.
Virtual Rosewood	It can happen here and it did. A monument to and museum about the Rosewood Massacre that happened in January 1923 in Florida.
Electrobit City	Gaming meets kinetic, flat work and hard edged art for an immersive and exciting experience that never grows stale.