We Will Never Forget our Lily Frogs
And We Still Love our Petable Turtles
Shouting into the Wind -- Almost the end of the Petable Turtles.
Illicit Grief and Real Loss -- Now the frogs are in trouble
as well. This hurts!
All I Want -- What do I want out of Second Life? Losing breedables, fully or
partially means I really have to think about meaning.
Our Frogs are Really Going to Die! The end
was almost upon us.
Dragoness Rage was Here -- There is no one to
rescue and resurrect our Lily Frogs.
Eileen H. Kramer and Iyoba BatOni -- January 1, 2014
Another Way of Remembering
This week Shaka and I both learned that the sim where she was born as Shaka (not where she rezzed but where she began the active life she has now as an avie) is closed to the public. Yes, the forces of right-thinking and modesty have locked down the TTU Libraries3 Sandbox. That's why it has no link. The forces of modesty have vanquished and driven out the scantilly clad foe. Decency has won out, albeit they have won a pyhrric victory, since law abiding members of the public are also barred from entering the sandbox.
Meanwhile, Shaka Prynne, my twelve year old avie, keeps her compelling quality. It is easy to slide into character. It is easy to remember. It is easy to bind oneself to a subaltern role, and it is easy to then feel rich in resources and knowledge. Shaka like me reads voraciously, is curious about everything, and though at times bitter, can be surpisingly motivated to explore. Since the Paris 1900 Archipelago was such a flaming success, we decided to visit Sumer/Mesopotamia on the Uruk-Ninsun Islands. This is an army of mesh figures ready for battle. Whom they are going to fight is a total mystery. You'll see why.
I wasn't sure that the Uruk-Ninsun Islands were Sumerian or Babylonian. I was expecting a group of ziggurats like Mayan pyramids. The columned architecture came as a surprise. I told Shaka that we might be in old Persia or some later kingdom.
I wasn't sure at all about this statue. The Sumerians might worship a sea god, but he looked way too much like images of King Neptune or the Mer King in the Little Mermaid. Most cultures do not indulge in creating realistic, representative human figures. That is hard for most Westerners to stomach, unless they have seen a lot of images of nonWestern or primitive art. Shaka has looked at the pictures and so have I. Let's just say I had my doubts.
And let's just say this fine, marble statue sealed them, and sealed Shaka's. This kind of a nude was just not something people in the Ancient Near East made. This is Greek or perhaps Roman or imitation Greek/Roman. An About Land showed that the Uruk-Ninsun Islands were for Greek role play. "Somebody can't keep their ancient civilizations straight," Shaka complained. Like me, Shaka learned about Sumer in sixth grade. She is in seventh grade this year, and Sumer is NOT Greece.
That said, Shaka appreciated the light house on Ninsun. She could climb the stairs, all four stories worth, and stand on a nice, stable, top platform and see all around. The orange/gold trim on the windows was beautiful, and this is a mesh structure, with paper thin walls which I found both fascinating and weird.
As I've mentioned before, Shaka has to be bribed to travel. Cultural sites are great lures, and so are amusement parks. Most of the parks I've explroed with Iyoba are foreign or they are rides added to educational/corporate sims, such as the amazing Cyclone on Soho New York. With Shaka, the search engine is our best friend which is how we found Black Pearl Beach, two sims full of rides, attractions, and a bit of shopping. The first ride Shaka tried was the runaway train.
Unlike my real life self, Shaka does NOT get motion sick, and like my real life self before my stomach and ears put a stop to it about fifteen years ago, Shaka loves spinning, twisting, flipping, dropping, stomach churning amusement park rides and the scarier they are, the better she likes them. This mad fall ride was just perfect. She pestered me endlessly to go on Arachnofobia and managed to ride it last night as well, but I have no pictures. I gritted my teeth as the ride spun in mouselook. It was not as sickening as the real life Octopus, which it resembles.
And like me, very much like me, Shaka just plain doesn't scare easily from conventional bugaboos. This includes clowns. Instead of creeping her out, the clowns in the Insane Clown Fun House fascinated her. She knows about Clown College and asked the clowns for career advice which she is keeping to herself. Clown College she figures will help with drama club, since Shaka all ready knows she'll be playing character parts in high school. Not everyone can play a romantic lead.
My writing makes Shaka seem more optimistic than she actually is. She is young, future oriented, and at times hopeful. Hopeful, though, quickly turns to wistful and then to bitter. She has endured loss, different loss than I endured at her age, but similar enough, and like I was then she has not very many resources to deal with what life hands her. She can read. She can think about the future which she knows because as a kid in school, a lot of it is predicatlbe. She can explore. She can behavie politely and hope adults respect her. Sometimes the attempts go awry, but mostly she does not have to deal with rejection, just the fear of it. In some weird ways, I can learn from Shaka who tries to be happy and who sometimes succeeds. I have my own issues in real life and fewer resources than I'd like to deal with them. Playing a charcter in a similar situation should be helpful.
And that is a good reason for being Shaka, and getting just a little bit "sucked in." I don't really notice this while I'm switching between Shaka and her caseworker. That is what she calls me. With Iyoba I am the One Who Thinks She Knows. Shaka is articulate, intelligent, and usually listens to reason. If she asks for something she needs it. If she needs something that she dosen't ask for, I may or may not foist it on her. We go places. She goes to class. She talks to her classmates. She plays the oldest sister or baby sitter, even though she is sure she is not maternal. The weirdness of playing Shaka does not kick in until I have logged off. It feels like awakening from a dream. I know where I've been. I know what I've done, but there's a kind of tattered and sad (empty) feeling about where I am now because there's a gap in the reality of thirty to sixty minutes. I am aware it is time to pick up where I left off.
Eileen H. Kramer with help from Shaka Prynne -- April 30, 2014
What we Would Lose
You want to know what it's all about. You want to know why I absolutely DON'T want my One and me to
go to
Cafe Pleidaes on Daikin Air Resort in a few hours, I can tell you in just one word, FLOWERS. Well
actually it's a bit more complicated than that. It's no big secret that my One Who Thinks She Knows gets out of
sorts a lot of the time, but what makes her feel good are pretty, well built spaces, exploring new spaces, and making
stuff.
And most of what my One makes is either plants and flowers or else dresses, a lot of which are floral prints.
This is important. My One will pay rent if she can have a garden. She will look after the the Little Hotel in the Sky only if she can landscape around it. We don't have much furniture inside the hotel.
I think it needs a planter. She will tour gardens. She will complain about lack of ecological integrity, which is why
we have a temperate house at Stinky Stinky,
and do you know what the slogan of Stinky Stinky is: "Life is going to get better!" My One needs her flowers and
plants.
And that is why my One needs the Trenza
Archipelago. My One and I found these flowers hanging from the front of the Cafe L'Amour in the southwestern corner of Daikin Air Resort. This is a Brazilian Club, and unlike Japanese
operations it never closes. There is a picnic area, and the radio plays music. You can ride the swings or just sit and sort
inventory.
And here is Cafe L'Amour's amazing garden. These wild flowers are rough looking, right size, and just
plain gorgeous. They are NOT mesh, but there are ways to use textures effectively, and my One believes
plants with textures can be just fine, and sometimes they areally are.
These rudbeckia (black eyed susans) are a great example. My One and I found them on the western edge
of Cafe L'Amour's garden. We could not get the picture straight, but my One says their color is realistic, as
is the ratio of leaves to flowers. She found out where to see more work by their creator. We need to go there, and going
there would be a lot better than a trip to
Cafe Pleidaes when it is "open!"
And here are mesh flowers for sale and dsplayed in containers all over
Cafe Peekaboo. This is a Japanese Cafe, and the flowers bore a striking resmblance to those we saw over
on Mesh Templates. In fact, they are the same ones.
The Punklives crew use their island of templates as a museum and sell or build with their work on the other Trenza islands.
Punklives' commercial ventures became even more apparent, as we crossed the south of
Daikin Air Resort and found Punklives Guitars and Club Equipment. The houses, the sculptures, and many of the stages and dance floors
we saw on Mesh Templates were for sale! That meant we had not accidentally
added a store to the Explore SL Spread Sheet. Ny One sometimes has good instincts, and it made her happy to
see them rewarded.
My One even liked the Club L'Amour sky sphere. She says that smokey, cloud filled sky and the crescent moon make
the whole place stop just short of kistch, and as for me, I think the sky sphere is beautiful and romantic. It was fine that we were there alone.
We both hope it gets used, or else there is an empty parcel leaking rent.
The parcel that holds Cafe Omega (Not pictured here!) at the
extreme, southeast corner of
Daikin Air Resort is not quite empty but the build is raw and half finished.
There is no furniture, no music, no ubiquitous signs. Maybe the cafe is in the sky, far above the cloud level. Maybe it
just isn't ready for prime time. We flew north and up. High walls do not make the island particularly walkable, and found
the Dream Seed Mall which
reminded us both of Slow, which is one of our
favorite sims and one of the places my One goes to relax. We both noticed these fawns drinking from the shallow canal that
runs down the mall's center. The mall's buildings are modern prefabs, that look old. They are trendy but beautiful, and very different
from a typical slapped-together mall. Maybe the Japanese can make malls work.
From Dream Seed Mall we entered the Sourire Mall, which
we thought we had seen before, but we overlooked Happy Rabi. Happy Rabi is a clothing store, but it is also a beautiful build with
interesting sculptures and mesh content in the store and in the grassy courtyard outside. This rabbit, which is a scripted sculpty couch, is
just one example.
Of course no Japanese place is complete without roll cake, and yes we found this lovely roll cake sculpture
at Sourire Mall as well.
It was in a playground with a chick merry go round in pale, rainbow colors, and a more prosaic spinner ride like
you would find in many school yards and parks.
But there is another side to Sourire Mall.
Yes, this is a jail, and a cruel one. There is no furniture in the cell and nowhere for a prisoner to pee. I was horrified when I saw this.
I was only glad the cell was empty. Jails and prisons are ALMOST NEVER part of American or Brazilian malls. German shopping areas may
include a police station. I wish I hadn't gone here, because stuff like this makes my One want to "rise to the challenge."
Instead of a challenge my One needs to think of
Mesh Templates at ground level. Here there is one of the few wetlands in Second Life, and one full of flowers like
bright, pink lady slipper orchids and these amazing, purple squill. This is how mesh should be. It does not matter if
the Punklives crew thinks we are dirt under their feet or trash not worth taking out. We don't have to associate with them socially.
We can just appreciate their work. My One isn't going to make them like us any better by dragging them into their faces.
You, reader, you understand. I just wish my One would catch on.
Iyoba BatOni with help from Eileen H. Kramer -- March 27, 2014
Count Your Blessings
"NO!" I shouted at my One Who Thinks She Knows. "You are not going to the
Cafe Pleidaes on Daikin Air Resort on a Sunday morning when it is 'open!'" Actually the Cafe Pleidaes is open all the time. On Sunday morning there is something there that is organized. The problem is that there is a dress code, and it is written in Japanese. There are lots of rules written in Japanese all over the Cafe, and then there are the unwritten rules which we also can't read. We were only readmitted to the Trenza Archipelago less than three weeks ago, and if the powers that be kick us out for no good reason (No one is ever banned for a good reason!), we're probably out for good.
We first wandered into Cafe Pleidaes by accident when exploring the Trenza Carrot Mall. We passed through the Sourire Mall just to the south and kept going and kind of fell into the ball room. We decided to come back later, which is what we did yesterday.
It was late at night, and Cafe Pleidaes made a refreshing change from University of Cincinnati 5. It is much newer, and a lot of the mesh and landscaping is fairly original. Neither my One, who is very much into plants, nor I have seen very much wisteria in Second Life. Here is a whole pergola full! It took my poor One three tries toget this picture right.
Cafe Pleidaes bleeds detailed, raelistic, and yes...humorous content. These soda cans sat ready for drinking behind the bar. True, they are getting warm and need to be refridgerated. My One even looked to see if they were empty because they were sitting in the warm air. Perhaps there is ice for them or perhaps the patrons at this bar (There are several at Cafe Pleidaes) prefer their soda closer to room temperature. What my One also noticed was that this was a copyrighted, American brand. "If one is going to spend prims on soda containers, why not create your own brand of soda and invent new flavors," my One asked rhetorically, of course. Note: my One and I created Mourning Dove Soda in five great, imaginative flavors: boysenberry, carrot, etrog, date nut bread, and maple. Who needs copycatting and copyright violation!
Somehow Cafe Pleidaes feels much bigger than it is. I'm not sure why. This picture with the tree gives a very good example of the illusion of size created by a few elements in the landscape. The other factor in the illusion of space is that the cafe is multilevel with lots of walkable paths and stairs. Empty spaces make one aware of space and its limitation, I think, while filled spaces that encourage a lot of walking and looking (but not touching, and certainly NOT fruitless touching), also increase the feeling of size because you move through them slower. It is still very hard to believe that Cafe Pleidaes takes up only one eighth of its island.
Of course building on more than one level is a challenge. It takes more prims to construct a second floor. Stairs can be cramped or ill-fitting. You also have walls to deal with and texture so they are NOT too imposing. My One and I have solved this problem by building a variety of platforms to increase space. Platforms have legs, but they also increase space by adding a level. Many of our platforms are are ring shaped.
Cafe Pleidaes solves the multi-level problem by building the whole structure or part of it, above ground level and using ground level as a kind of finished basement. Here I am on a transparent dance floor. I wondered if that was just an elaborate texture or a lot of prims wasted for decoration below me.
My heart leaped when I saw steps going DOWN! There was a not-so-secret basement below the transparent-floored ball room, and it was kind of a parody of Central Park at night. My One finally figured out that the skyline on the jungle wall in the background (This is one of the few applications where a jungle wall looks good!) is New York City at night from the East River. The room itself is supposed to be Central Park. The tulips and other flowers are beautiful. There are fully scripted places to sit and lie down. Of course, my One pointed out that noone would naturalize tulips on this scale in real life. They are simply too delicate and expensive. Daffodils or other narcissus or muscari are the flowers of choice for naturalizing.
And here are more tulips. I thought these were beautiful, but they made my poor One wince. She says they are too stiff and straight for that size bloom which would bend the stems. In real life, she says the stems are taller and the blooms a bit smaller, and multiple blooms that size would not grow that close together. It's the little things one notices. Ironically, the tulips my One uses for decorative motifs are usually spcies tulips, small squat things with star-like blossoms.
By now you probably realize that both my One Who Thinks She Knows and I were reading a lot into fairly static content. What we saw was not the signs we could not read but our own interpretation of the "closed" cafe. Here I am dancing without music; for there was no stream, but I had animations and
Cafe Pleidaes had several dance floors. Neither my One nor I have any problem dancing to the music in our heads. If a space is open we use it.
"Why not?" we both figure. The place is after all open to the public and there for us to use. That is why we swim in the water in the canals at Trenza Resort and in the ocean off of Sien. If a place is open to the public in Second Life, it is open to the whole wide world to use in whatever way the owner sets the land controls. That is NOT a concept most Japanese land owners share. This is a brutally hard concept to wrap our little minds around, because most Americans will if they see a an avie whose One comes from a foreign country show up on one of their sims, and it is an otherwise public place, they will embrace and admire that avie and his/her One for coming out of their comfort zone and broadening their horizons. They will consider the foreign avie-One team brave and admirable, and any one who would say "This place is for only Americans" would be considered low, prejudiced, and small minded.
Of course the idea that any one in the whole world can or should visit a public facility is American and culture bound, if admirable. The Brazilian idea that spam/advertising is part of the way of doing business, and not offensive, is also culture bound, just as the idea that a Japanese sim is for Japanese avatarim and Ones is also part of their culture, and probably just as offensive as the idea of spam as necessary is to some Americans, though my One and I have both gotten used to that idea. Now my One would like to introduce most Japanese with their clannishness to the idea of public accomodations. She would also like to see the Japanese she meets check out American haunts. She believes the world would be a happier better place if.... You know she is not going to get any takers on these ideas of hers. She also likes experiments and you know about her experiments. Sunday morning, she wants to see if we can find acceptance in Cafe Pleidaes or else get us banned for good. The only good thing about all of this is that the club is not "Open" until Sunday and the idea of wandering around an empty, unused club that is CLOSED is foreign to most Japanese. And yes, we're generalizing, but sometimes that is useful.
Meanwhile, my One Who Thinks She Knows often has errands and often sleeps late on Sunday mornings. We may miss seeing Club Pleidaes when it is open, and I won't miss it. I did try to tell my One that we still have seven eighths of Daikin Air Resort to explore. She seemed to listen. This after all was not yet Sunday. We had time. We had room. I found a jewelry store and then a club that was not yet built or perhaps in the sky. I flew up and got blown off course and landed at nine hundred meters above the ground on an island called Mesh Templates. Here in the Trenza Mesh Training and Templates exhibition was mesh as we had never seen it. You can see tehe sculptures illustrating this blog. Their beauty speaks for themselves. I had always thought of mesh as responsible for missing body parts and clothing that looks as if it is torn and furniture that takes forever to rezz. Now I saw it a whole new way.
In addition to sculptures, Trenza Mesh Training and Templates also features jewelry and plants. The plants have issues. Pointsettias are out of season, and the sunflowers are branching types with flowers too big for their thinner stems, but these flowers are head and shoulders above most flowers made in Second Life. That is high praise from my One who creates flowers and plants and uses them in her fabrics regularly. As for the sculptures, they earned Trenza Mesh Training and Templates a place on the Explore SL spread sheet.
"Now," I told my One, "You've invited the whole world to visit Mesh Training and Templates. The owners probably don't expect this. They will probably be surprized. Haven't you done enough? You still have seven eighths of Daikin Air Resort to explore. Do you want to miss out on all that because you violated some rule you can't read or that is not written down purposely in some idiot's club? You're already enjoying the Trenza Archipelago. It lifts your spirits, and next time you get banned it's going to be FOREVER. Please One! See sense! Count your blessings, and don't try any experiments here." You know what's going to happen Sunday though. My poor One, she never learns.
Iyoba BatOni with help from Eileen H. Kramer -- April 23, 2014
And Then There Was One
Whenever a vigorous and seemingly active sim vanishes, the news always hits and hits hard. By now though I really
should not be surprised. Ghosts of sims such as
Teaching 16 and Black Bear Island continue
to walk the grid seemingly immortal as long as someone remembers to pay the tier to Linden Labs. Why shouldn't the converse be true.
On Friday, I learned that two sims in the University of Cincinnati Arcbhipelago
were gone. I thought this was a mistake. I waited the usual day or so, and then cleaned up the Explore
SL spread sheet.
I then looked at the grid map. My question was: What is happening to the University of Cincinnati 5, the archipelago's one remaining island. It was time for Iyoba to go bushwhacking.
We both hoped that we'd find new building and a thriving island, a lone survivor. For a while it looked that way indeed.
As on the map, the buildnigs, a detailed and beautiful build were all intact. It even looked like there were great plans for this island
including a hospital, an urgent care, and a funding exhibit. The funding exhibit by the way puts this island on the
Explore SL spread sheet.
The funding exhibit is still intact and it spans five floors. It probably could do quite well on a 4096 or 8092. The rest of the island
was what particularly interested both Iyoba and me. We found our way into an elaborate and realistic hospital. Here in the
myocardial infraction care unit, hidden behind doors that said: "restricted access" was a patient tended by a full staff and attached to all manner of
complicated medical gear. Iyoba, who is an old hand at this, began to go through the usual routine. She touched, and touched, and touched, and touched.
She touched the medical personnel. That's not rude in Second Life. She touched the sink (You must wash your hands!) She touched the sharps box.
She touched the equipment. There were no HUDs available and no signs where to get one. There is a chance this sim could be locked down, and ordinary
trespassers would simply see a series of elaborate, static scenes.
This wheel chair was one of the best indications something was not quite right with the hospital or the urgent care
clinic. Often medical exhibits either give away wheel chairs so that visitors can learn what is like to be handicapped.
They also at least let visitors sit in them. This lovely wheelchair, however, let Iyoba do nothing.
Our trip to the emergency room clearly showed a space not ready for prime time. Even with a HUD, would be medical
workers need animations called poses and either scripted furniture or pose balls to act out those animations. Yes, those
animations could be made part of a heads up display or HUD, but generally sitting, washing, lying down, are tied
to furniture. This is a fairly standard convention, and one that most builders follow. In the image you can see Iyoba
trying to be the patient. The bed does not have an animation or pose ball with animation to let her lie down.
The stool by the bed side in the emergency room was also missing its animation. Iyoba sits in a generic position
sideways to the bed and not facing a patient or leaning to listen in a sympathetic manner. Uh how do you say
"no anination?" And in the myocardial intensive care unit, another surprise awaited us.
And yes, this is almost "Embarass Your Avie Day," but Iyoba really was a good sport. When she tried
touching the sink and no water came on and no voice thanked her for washing her hands (And yes, she tried to
touch the foot operated paddle which made this one very realistic scrub sink!), she tried sitting on the sink, and...
let's just say there was no washing animation. So much for teaching the importance of hand-washing in a health care setting.
By now, Iyoba and both had a new question about University of Cincinnati 5. We had seen the hospital last year, and back then it was mostly empty and devoid of scripts.
The upper floors are still empty this year, and there are no scripts. What chance was there that there would ever be any scripts to
make a medical demonstration/tutorial work?
Believe it or not there is a way to answer that question. In addition to touching and sitting with little success, Iyoba now began to
do Object Profiles which in Exodus, my browser, gives information about an object, including its creation date (rezz date) if you
click on Details. That is how we found out that most of the objects were three to four years old. They had creation dates
of 2010 and 2011. There was nothing newer. There was probably no mesh, but we did not look. The robots were all sculpties, and not mesh. That much
I do remember.
Still Iyoba and I had high hopes as she headed for the Urgent Care. Neither of us remembered being here before, though
the urban Potemkin Village was quite familiar, and in its own weird way charming. The bus stop, though, was rather sad.
Imagine waiting for a bus that never comes and you get the idea. The Urgent Care was chock full of content, much of it detailed, and
weirdly realistic. There was even a room with a patient in it, and medical personnel, and when Iyoba touched them, nothing happened.
In an empty room, Iyoba tried out the gynecologist's table. I would not have put her picture on this blog had it been a success.
Instead, she ended up sitting in a chair on the other side of the room.
What this meant was that all the objects in the room were linked together. This made sitting on anything except a
home prim in the counter, impossible. The furnishings needed to be unlinked or a complex script added. And, perhaps it would
happen soon, but somehow I don't think so. The copyrights on most of the signs date them from four years ago.
No one has bothered to change the dates, and probably no one has bothered to do any work on
University of Cincinnati 5 for several years.
Does this mean someone hired to build or someone in the University's medical school will come back and finish the job?
One can always hope, but given what happened to the other islands in the archipelago, I'm not optimistic. Now there is one.
Soon there will be none.
Eileen H. Kramer with help from Iyoba BatOni -- April 21, 2014
Travels with a Young Avie
Shaka dserved a week with me, and she got most of it. One of Shaka's biggest challenges in Second Life, and in turn
my challenge, is she needs landmarks, and just a nice repetoire of places to go and points from which she can
explore further. With Iyoba we used the map search engine and the regular engine, island hopped, whatever. Shaka
is not Iyoba. Say that three times fast. She also worries about whether she will be welcome, and her early experience
with St. Michael's Orphanage and a very
failed adoption trial have made her even more gun shy. She hates Dance Island because it is crowded and cavernous.
She dosen't quite fit in with the little kids at school, and she sees no reason to go out. We've had more sessions in
the not-so-secret Richmond Elementary sandbox or the cafeteria as Shaka reads Richard III, then I want to count. I had to
figure out a way to make her want to go out.
And of course I found one, French. Starting a foreign language is one of the few brght lights
in the landscape of seventh grade, and the City of Lights too good for Shaka to pass up. We were off to La Tour Eiffel
before we knew it, despite one or two soft spots which Shaka managed to find.
She still loved to roam around the tower and also sit at its base and conjugate her French verbs.
Shaka love French and literature. She wants to be a cultured adult, and wants adults to respect her for her
interests and the fact that she can sometimes be polite. She is the age when adults just begin to empathize with
their children instead of treat them as alien beings. At the
Eiffel Tower and on the archipelago that houses it, Shaka felt welcome and safe. She did not have to role play some one she was not as at some
sims I know. She did not have to worry about no-children-allowed areas either.
Yet the pleasures my young avie enjoyed were for the most part the same as amny adults would like. There were cafes, art galleries,
a theater, a hansom cab, and yes...also amusement park rides. Here Shaka rides a hansom cab all over at least two of the archipelago's islands.
I was too busy trying to get a good camera shot to keep track of where the thing went, until it went into a wall on
Paris Couture. I had to explain to Shaka that she had to stand to
send the cab back where it came from and to free the stuck horse.
Of course Shaka's free parachute, a
gift of La Tour Effel worked a lot
better than the poor hansom cab. We can both blame it on Paris Couture being "under construction." Much of that island actually works quite
well, but sim crossings can be tricky. I think that is what did in the poor, ill-fated hansom cab.
Paris Couture is also home to the archipelago's two amusement park rides. Both are oversize, built to impress, and also to give a feel of
the turn of the previous century. The Carousel has an amazing painted ceiling. It is easy to start and work, though the big wheel bicycle that
Shaka chose to ride seated her in a very awkward position. You can hardly see it in this distant shot.
The ferris wheel is a lot harder to board. It took Shaka and me three cars to get her on board and it was still tough even then.
The wheel rotates quickly for something so large and monumental. The cars seat avatarim at a stand. They need a coat of paint, and probably
had one in real life, but the smokey color and their large size gives the wheel a Steam Punk or nostalgic ambience. I did not look to
see who designed any of this. Now I wish I had.
Of course amusement rides were good for more than the pleasant diversions that passive motion at the right speed gives an avatarot and their One, as
Iyoba calls me (Shaka calls me her caseworker. Same difference.) Shaka wanted to find more amusement parks. She also wanted to find some rope courses.
We searched and came up with names. Suddenly, Shaka wanted to travel, but the amusement parks had to wait until we had seen all the Paris 1900 Archipelago.
There were finished art galleries on
this unfinished island. The Paris Metro Gallery featured what we first thought were Gaugin reproductions, but turned out to
be original paintings of African Americans on the Sea Islands of Georgia and South Carolina. Shaka gasped! Then she smiled with joy.
These paintings were amazing!
Shaka could not get enough of them. She looked to see who painted them and left a message for the artist admiring her work and
asking if she could become the artist's friend. Shaka's favorite painting is the one in this paragraph. She thinks it is of a mother
baptizing her child. I think this is a pagan ritual. Neither of us know what Indea Vaher, the artist, thinks but Shaka may some day know.
Ms. Vaher accepted her offer of friendship. This means a lot to Shaka, and also to me.
I guess by now, you've guessed that the Paris archipelago is a hub for well-made content. These lamps
on Les Champs Elysees
along with several others in other locations, deserve a second, third, and fourth look.
Of course we got to make some content of our own as well. Now
Les Champs Elysees and the other three islands in the Paris Archipelago do not have any public or private sandboxes in them.
Fortunately, Shaka's new shirts were all texture only. This purple shirt was one for which she clamored. Purple is Shaka's favorite color,
and floral print blouses are just....
And here is Shaka in her Tangerine-in-a-crate shirt. We did all this creative work on the stage of the
Theatre des Batignolles. There was no show in progress, and why not strut our stuff. For once Shaka had no fear any one would throw her out, and
she got three new shirts for her trouble. This is an essential part of this avie's spring wardrobe.
Of course after I finished making all these shirts, I found an extra winter shirt pattern still sitting on my flash drive.
Oh well, Shaka has another shirt coming. I am so used to Iyoba's bottomeless closet that when I hear Shaka complain she does not have what to wear,
I forget she really doesn't. I guess I am one step closer to helping her fix that problem. More importantly, Shaka still needs to feel accepted and free when
travelling. I think our trip on the Paris Archipelago helped with a lot of that, but this is just one sim. We're not sure what we will find when
we take on amusement parks or a set of Babylonian sims in the northwestern corner of the grid. We'll have to see what happens then.
Eileen H. Kramer with help from Shaka Prynne -- April 20, 2014
Satisficing Design
When Iyoba and I travel we see beautiful stuff. I do not mean up-to-the-minute, mesh, distressed jeans, or a mesh sofa with twenty poses and "press /1a to adjust." I mean unambiguously beautiful, realistic or better than real, and worthy of saving as a photograph. I look at beautiful things like these irises from Club Hyades at Trenza Mall and I feel both inspired and intimidated.
I say "inspired" because I want to make things this beautiful, and "intimidated" because I'm just not that good. I also need a low prim count, or my item won't get rezzed, and the item needs to be functional. This wonderful sushi just looks VERY pretty at Cafe Orion on Trenza looks great but it's not edible.
This grilled cheese sandwich basket which sits on the bar at Trenza Resort is also inedible, does not sell itself, and just looks great! I don't have room to rezz something so goregous and useless. I don't use Blender well enough to do mesh etc... Building takes lots of work, not that I am lazy, but when they come out with twenty-five hour days I'll be one of the dingbats waiting in liine for three days to get my extra hour.
Then why not just buy content? Why build at all? The reason is that my own building and textures satificing. Sometimes the best, is really not the best, but what I want, what I can make, and what works for my needs works much better. Shaka, my twelve-year-old altie, is like Iyoba, my first avie, hard to fit. She loves paisleys. Paisleys are hard to get. She is wearing a nice paisley blouse and pretty, emerald green courderoy or velour pants. It's a twelve-year-old's idea of "looking nice." And I also did Shaka's skin and hair (Thank you Es0 Torok for the demo sculpties!). They're not perfect, but I wanted a very dark avie, and with Second Life hair, the sky's the limit in terms of color and pure outrageousness.
With my own builds I can skip right past blindly imitating what is "nice" and realistic in "real life" and make things that would be just plain almost impossible. This flat roofed round house is the Little Hotel in the Sky which sits above LEA5 five days a week. (It will be back up on Saturday night). In "real life" round houses with all the comforts of home are pretty rare. In Second Life, they're available so why not. I also got to use perfectly white, birch logs for an exterior texture, lovely red tiles for the roof, and knotty pine for interior paneling and put in a stained glass skylight.
Of course I am ambivalent about furniture, probably because Shaka and Iyoba don't really sleep and are forever on the move. Something on which you can sit is better than something on which there is no place to sit, but aside from benches and stools and a planter with seats, furniture leaves me cold. That said, I love Adirondack chairs but don't have eleven to fifteen spare prims per seat. Finally, I used some demo sculpties to make this four prim approximation and improvement. The red wicker back is my own design. Sculpties of a certain type "fold over" so they are fairly easy to texture. That is a nice trick if you remember it. The red wood goes with the red back, and the pose ball forms a third leg (Why not save prims when you can). The single seating animation means no menus, and I adjusted the pose ball so Iyoba and Shaka and most smaller avatarim sit where they should, not floating in the air or half way through the seat. I think this will work for more norrmal size avatarim as well, but right now the sculpties are "no transfer." Any way if you make your own chairs you'll be able to texture them as you please.
I am not one bit ambivalent about plants. Plants are probably why I still rent lands. Plants are why I am active in virtual worlds. This is no exageration! Active Worlds, my first, graphic, virtual world experience gave me unlimited, empty, green space in which to build. I made roads and for the area around where my avie lived, I built a farm complete with gardens and plants. I soon learned that both plants, animals, and human scale structures were necessary for making one feel at home. I even remember writing a page about biophilia in virtual worlds. It also does not hurt that plants are low prim and easy to make. These are brunella, and I think they are a new introduction to Second Life.
These jack in the pulpits (also called ariesema) exist because I got tired of seeing poppies growing in snow and other out-of-a-box, innapropriate, garish cultivated flowers. I felt I wanted and we all needed wildflowers. I've always loved jack in the pulpits. Well, now they are here. You can ask me for them in world. Best of all each ring of four is only one prim!
Of course sometimes one finds one building and needing objects that are a total surprise. In Shaka's case, she is reading Richard III by Shakespeare. She has it on a HUD, but other kids and adults could not see she was reading, so she just looked antisocial. A book for her to hold fixed that. It even has the same cover as her HUD, though if she reads at a table you can't see it. The book needs a printed page texture, but it will work with just plain white or beige.
And clothes are both a necessity and an obsession even though Iyoba, Shaka, and I are in no way fashonistas. In fact, we've been offered skin, makeovers, anything to get us to look like everyone else. I've never figured out what makes our appearance so unnerving. I think it's because we are realistically human and our not spending money makes those spending it feel illegitimate. I spend money in Second Life too. Zwicky food is not cheap, and this was Iyoba's last winter dress that we made in the Sapporo Sandbox where it just got warm enough. The short version worn with sandals is sort of transitional. If you want a pale, spring green dress in Second Life, the pickings are very slim, unless you make it yourself, and I doubt you'll find any orchid prints on a pale green background. The skirt has concave instead of convex prims. It means that it is a bigger skirt, but hey, variety is a good thing.
Likewise if you want a dress you can wear to work or some other conservative locale, and are tired of black pants or something way too tight and chic, but you still want a cute pattern and gorgeous color, you had better get out your LoopRez and find a sandbox. Do I have to tell you that if you want a magenta dress with a Mandarin collar and trilobites, you are about to start satisficing, even if you can't build at a professional level.
And yes, it is wonderful to be all dressed up with somewhere to go. Unlike in "real life" purple hair is a snap to create especially with free, demo sculpties and the right texture, which is floating freely around on various sandbox texture sorters. The dress was inspired by a great image of starling I found. He had so much attitude that he needed purple and yellow wax print style cloth to set him off. The sensible johnny collar long sleeved style is great for work in late winter or early spring. Here Iyoba wears her new dress on the grounds of the Cafe Orion on Trenza. I don't have to tell you that the Trenza Archipelago is a great place to wear a new outfit. Sometimes creativity, satisficing, freedom, and justice just go together. P.S. The Trenza Sandbox is closed, but you can't have everything.
Eileen H. Kramer with help from Iyoba BatOni and Shaka Prynne -- April 11, 2014
Receiving the Gift of Justice
"I am back! Justice is served!" called out a jubulant Iyoba about five days ago, when we suddenly found ourselves at Club Hyades on Trenza Mall. We were back! After two years of answering the summons to dance at Club Hyades with: "Alas, I am banned," and for no good reason (No one is ever banned for a good reason.), someone somehow opened the door, and let us in again.
To say I missed Trenza Mall and it's club and nearby shopping area was an understatement. I never forgot. At the same time I could neither be angry nor forgive. I still can not forgive, because I could not be angry. Ignorance is hardly bliss, but I still have no really firm idea who banned me from Trenza or why. Without knowing the circumstances, all I could do was ask to be readmitted or complain of my state. And without knowing the circumstances, there is no one to thank or forgive. That I did not forget in the end was a good thing because we never would have come back.
The first thing I asked when I could talk to any one at Club Hyades was whether Iyoba and I could explore the rest of the Trenza Archipelago. We had good reason to ask this. I remember no home invasions, since most of Trenza was commercial, but we did NOT want to get thrown out again. I was told any commercial area was safe, so we were off. Our first challenge was finding a way out of the club. There was an exit behind a statue of Buddha near the yellow and black tip jar. And no, this did not look like the Trenza I remembered.
That did not surprise me in the least. I figured part or all of the island had changed hands. Whoever had banned me might have moved on in the process or with time memories dim, all except for mine. I had to cam and sit to reach this club. It is called Trenza Crab and it is Dutch. This picture is only partially rezzed, but it gives you an idea of this club's elegant atmosphere. For some reason this club reminds me of a long gone establishment called Jappie's Hangout.
Jappie's inspired me to make more clothes. Those at Jappies' always looked rich and well put together. Jappie's ran early in the afternoon due to time zone differences, and the Dutch penchant for early bed times.
Of course Jappie's Hangout was a perfectly modern disco, and Trenza Crab exudes a more vintage, art deco atmosphere reminiscent of the Vintage Bar in Soho New York but with a lot more space. I'm not sure what kind of music they play. I didn't turn on the radio, because they are not always reliable indicators of what a club plays when there is a live DJ.
At ground level and to the southwest of Trenza Crab was a lovely temperate, garden space with a pavillion in the middle that had a stage and spaces separated by metal bars like a bicycle rack. This area bears the name Dream Flower Radio. You can see a sign advertising this. There are tiny mesh blossoms everywhere that take forever to rezz but are wroth the wait.
I'm not sure what goes on at Dream Flower Radio. There is a board for group bingo which is probably like Group Zyngo. The metal bars make dancing impossible.
There is what looks like a lectern/DJ booth, and on that booth are a tip jar and a watermelon that gives away free objects. There is also a cute, red kitty.
As Iyoba stood thinking about how Shaka would love the free stuff available at Dream Flower Radio, we both realized that we were not simply going to be able to walk across the Trenza Archipelago like the islands at NMC or the EduIslands. Most of what was here was forty to a hundred meters above ground and much of it was in a no-fly area. This is a poor man's security orb. It's not nasty, but it is exclusive.
It is also why Linden Labs created cam and sit, but somehow cam and sit doesn't do much good when you find yourself suddenly under water, with a swimmer that does not work because scripts are also disabled. Water is a great deterrent.
We decided we would have better access if we left Club Hyades in a different direction. This cave looks like a waterfall before you enter it. Beyond the waterfall was a half rented mall, an outdoor Zyngo parlor, and a yacht with a club on board. Iyoba had to try out the dance pole. I'm not sure who in Second Life uses dance poles. I've seen pole dancers, and Iyoba even tipped one, but Iyoba was the first pole dancing avie I've seen in close to half a year.
Meanwhile, this small shopping area was on the wrong side of the island from where we wanted to go, but our destination, which on the map looked populated was nothing but deep no-fly, no-script, water. Whatever was there, was in the sky, and probably no more than 256 meters up. We knew this because we saw submerged poles and building foundations. 256 meters is the maximum length for a megaprim.
We decided to try teleport and freefall since flight was turned off, and scripts for a parachute disabled. Avatarim can fall from great heights without being hurt. I got the SLURL, changed the height to 160 meters, and hit <<ENTER>>. Iyoba landed safely 106 meters above the bottom of the sea at the Trenza Carrot Mall.
This was a Japanese mall, which was probably the reason for its innovative design and semi-secrecy. Yes, we Americans do want to arm chair travel and crash your party! Japanese malls are also especially visit-worthy, not for the trendy, conformist fashion, about which both Iyoba and I could care less, but for the architecture, the ladders, and stairs to climb, and sometimes the play equipment and cozy cafes. The angels (not the Devil!) are in most Japanese sim's details, like this lovely panda pickled in tea.
And this little kitty in a great big cup of soup stood guard meowing greetings outside a store called Sweet Cat. Trenza Carrot Mall is actually part of three or four malls, that do so much besides offer shopping that they may earn a place on the Do it Better 2014 list.
Meanwhile, both Iyoba and I had figured out how and why we had gotten back onto the Trenza Archipelago. The club owners/landlords of the island, have rented most of the islands out to strangers. The mall, where Salaud, of beggars' army fame, once had a shop, has vanished. Malls in Second Life often die. Brazilian and Japanese malls tend to do a bit better than American ones. To survive, Trenza had to be open to all comers, so I am back. I still don't know how or why Iyoba and I were expelled. It really doesn't matter. No one is ever banned for a good reason. Now if only Iyoba and I can return to Berkman, but I don't think that is happening any time soon.
Eileen H. Kramer with help from Iyoba BatOni -- April 8, 2014
A Pair of Vanishing Acts
Sometimes it is a blessing that my One Who Thinks She Knows gets trigger happy with the camera. That means we have lots of outtakes, and out takes are a blessing when you want to discuss a sim that has disappeared. Of course LeQaa al3rb is still on the map, and you may be able to teleport there. I can't any more, and as we know no one gets banned for a good reason. I'm not sure I'm banned for any reason at all. The last time I was there over there which was over the weekend, there was nothing but flat green ground and five hundred and twenty-seven out of a possible fifteen thousand objects probably somewhere in the sky. I planned a sky survey for Tuesday, but am now locked out of the place.
Most of these pictures date from December and January of 2014. They let us share our memories with all of you. Niether my One nor I speak any Arabic, so we have no idea what happened to the sim or why. My One says that a language barrier makes people seem smarter and more creative and nicer, until...they're not.
LeQaa al3rb was home to two gorgeous builds, the first in the traditional ornate Arab/Southern European style, and the second an out-of-the-box European, Medeival village with lovely landscaping and great detail. My One and I loved both builds. It's sad to see that neither of them made it. Many Arabs in Second Life speculate on land, and tear down and rebuild. They also build big with a good sense of public space.
If you are curious about this picture, this is part of a multitude of selfie shots I took for possible profile pictures at Never Be Solo. That experiment has given me an active altie and once again, a lot of out takes.
WiFi was also a great place for out takes, and possible profile pictures. Here I am dancing on the bridge. Back in January, the sim was built in a monumental style, with grand boulevards, gardens, beaches, lots of water, and that controlled fire common on Arab sims. And yes, those are skunks on my dress.
This little house sat on one of my favorite parts of the island, which was a series of stone decks and stair wells and furnished courtyards. This was a deck with wicker furniture and huge, weeping willow trees, one of which you can see in the background. I was never sure of the little house' purpose, but it liked the pink Christmas tree outside it, and did go in to explore. I'm glad I did that now.
I'm also glad I visited the beach and swam. I think I swam because I fell in the water, but that was fine. Swimming the cannals was fun. I always knew that WiFi would be there as a good place to go when my One was out of sorts.
We preferred the sim when it was less crowded. Nieither my One nor I play parchisi. She says she has forgotten how, so I don't know it either. Also Arabs talk in voice and the connection is terrible. We just wanted peace, quiet, and beauty.
And you can guess the rest of the story. All good things come to an end. If they did not we'd still be doing a lot of building in Berkman sandbox. No, they don't get a link. We're banned there. The parchisi area is all that is left of the old WiFi.
And you can blame monetization if you like. Arabs usually try to keep crass, business separated from pleasure, but sometimes the two must blend or the sim must survive. There is also an element of letting off steam among Arabs that is not on my One's or my agenda. My One's high school had a liberal and practical dress code. She never had to break it. She would be afraid to walk around in, does not know how to buy, and does not want me wearing "slut wear." Why not look well groomed, put together, professional, and pretty? Who knows into where you may walk. I like the confidence a bit of modesty brings. My One is also ten years my senior and has the problems of older ladies. Her adolescence has been overcome by events.
Me, I miss the willows, shrubbery, cool archways, and the pedestrian friendly bridges, steps, platforms etc... You don't need a car to get around a single sim, and strangers can't drive these wastes of status-hungry prims. The road is too wide, and the pavement here is rough and hot.
By contrast, this seat in the movie theater just off the huge mall in the main square, was cool and squishy vinyl. I also liked the bright red. I still miss the rattan chairs hanging by ropes though.
By now my One was beginning to thing what we would do if we had a whole sim to build on. It's almost too much land. We also wondered what the point of this facade was. I know there are a few incredibly huge skyscrapers in the Arab world and Malaysia, but what is the point? How would we do it better? My One said lots of forest, and more platforms like our Ovi-Ring. All most avatarim really need is a place to walk and sit. Dancing, skiing, swimming are also fine. A Vita Course would be just perfect.
We would not need a mall wall covered with graffiti. My One now inspired is working on plants for a wildflower garden at our Little Hotel in the Sky, but she also is pondering this image. My One says this is NOT how graffiti is painted in Atlanta. There are tags, people's names or handles, presented with pride and artistry. Once in New York, someone wrote his life story on walls. Occasionally there might be political slogans, but something so angry, negating, and anonymous as this piece of art work just doesn't happen. This is fake, imiatation graffiti. It probably came out of a box.
My One says she would never build anything out of a box because you have to understand your build to make it work for you. Function trumps beauty, though beauty might follow function. Avies don't need to come out of the rain, though I like a warm place if it is cold outside. We don't need kitchens. We don't need much privacy. This makes a good, useful build a challenge. Most box builds make great out takes but little more. They are also, for those with the means disposible. I just hope LeQaa Al3rb returns some day, even if it is blank land or looks completely different.
Iyoba BatOni with help from Eileen H. Kramer -- April 3, 2014
Only One Thing to Worry About
I'm still asking myself: "How did such a wretched month as this end on an up note?" I'll give some of the credit to my altie and client (I'm her Guardian ad Litem), Shaka. She found the ropes course in the playground at Richmond Elementary, and voila: Phys Ed, but without the ritual humiliation. A little exercise puts a young avie in a much better frame of mind.
Then the EFILAS HUD worked its magic. Shakespeare's Richard III is something my One Who Thinks She Knows and her little altie love to read together. Shaka wonders if Richard is really more a product of his dysfunctional environment and Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome than innately evil. I mean if everyone around you is shedding blood in a civil war, and close friends and family members kill each other for fun, what does such an environment breed, especially if you are ugly and only worth something because you are willing to fight? In Shaka's words: "Richard Gloster is one serious bad-ass!" And of course, Shaka discovered the low lag Richmond Elementary sandbox in the sky. She made a pink, zebra skin love seat and now has a first rate study lounge. She even asked me to put up the house. I guess she is going to move some furniture in there.
Then of course My One finally got up the courage to go bushwhacking again. She hates bushwhacking because, face it, a lot of places are gone, unchanged, degraded. She went to Thothica Community on USC Upstate Nursing Complex to look at the art, and found that the nursing school side of the island that had previously been cordoned off with ban lines was open for business!
Of course the HUD in the hospital does not quite work (for outsiders anyway) and some of the quizzes are not loaded. The nose exhibit is a bit small, but there is clearly a new and growing set of exhibits that yielded two new entries to the Explore SL Spread Sheet.
Too bad bushwhacking can't always be this rewarding. My One Who Thinks She Knows and I did get to see some gorgeous architecture on SimSim. Yes, that's the island's name. It's the posession of an engineering, professional organization, and they put in a gorgeous build that still looks fresh unless you look carefully.
Of course there is much to be said for the old school way of doing things. This lovely bench rezzed quickly because it was sculpty rather than mesh. It also did not bother with a menu for an avie who just wanted to get off her feet. Nearly all the office building in the tower is old style, and the persentation left up is from 2006. Oh well....
At least this maze still works. Well sort of. IT does not lead to a goal. It does not lead to an exit. The best you can do no matter how hard you try is come out where you went in, or right next to it. Is there a metaphor in that?
There must be a metaphor in this beautiful piece of landscape. No it is not an island. No it is not a quarter of an island or a skybox. It is a box made of jungle walls built hundreds of meters high on mainland near the The Honey Hut, our land in Hartley. There is a good reason that the Lindens leave a lot of mainland abandoned too. Unrestricted land owners behave like pigs.... No wait, that's an insult to all good swine. Please accept my apologies.
Then Friday, after my One saw the hideous, box on mainland and was seriously ready to lick all of her wounds at UAA Seawolves she got a message to come to Trenza Mall. We have been banned there forever, but my One wanted to rub our faces in it. She clicked teleport and....
Low and behold the teleport took...We were back! My first words were "Justice has been served! I am here!" Everyone should say such words once in a life time. Club Hyades at Trenza Mall has been redecorated in the latest style. It is naturalistic, and downright beautiful. This made my One wonder if the place had changed hands.
Sunday we returned to do a photo shoot at Club Hyades. There is no point in taking pepople's pictures without their permission. We don't really want to get kicked out again, and we weren't kicked out for any good reason the first time around, but who needs to give cause for a bad reason. I have lots of suspicions, but I can take my suspicions and 625L and ride the MARTA bus in Atlanta.
Naturally, both my One Who Thinks She Knows and I were both very curious about what had happened to the rest of the Trenza Archipelago. We had been banned from the entire place, and might still only be allowed on one island. We had fond memories of the mall itself that lay just beyond the club, and if the club had furniture like what you see in the photo, we reaasoned, the mall could only be better.
Of course getting out of Club Hyades was a bit of a challenge. We ended up walking through phantom rocks and then up a path into the mall that looked empty, with many stores for rent, and some with fixtures only half rezzed. Yes, that's a picture of a rezzing box. My One has never used these, but she's seen them around. She says we'll be doing a lot more exploring of Trenza in April. It is probably a brand new world since we were allowed there last.
Now I did say my One is very worried and I too am worried about one thing. You can tell what it is from this picture, yet, the happy zwicky, Fortunata, who is giving me a wonderful, zwicky kiss looks just fine. We even have lots of free gifts and food. The food is the most useful gift. We have been given so much free food, that we should have run out long ago.
But it hasn't and our zwickies are happy healthy, reproducing three offspring every three days, offspring whose appearance is more surprizing and beautiful since my One's painting experiments last winter. This white skirted purple male, is named Flavius. He is our first post experiment male. I wish we could let him out of stasis, but we have enough males, too few prims, and then there's the free food....
I love free food. My One loves free food, but we both remember.
At the end with the Lily Frogs we had several months worth of free food. Free food and this much of it, means that those running the breedable want to keep owners in the game and stock alive. We also know that
an update is a month behind schedule. We are not sure what is going on.
Zwickies will be our last conventional breedable. We'll buy animated sculpties and make more KoLis.
The problem is that the end of the Zwickies, will break our heart a third time, if we have any heart left to break. We may wake up one morning and find all seven of our zwickies returned to their home galaxy with only old equipment by which to remember them, and photographs. As for the breach of trust that will bring on the end, it has all ready happened. I love the zwickies. They are beautiful. My One loves the zwickies, but we trust no breedable creator whose hand rests on the server kill switch. And no, Griderz and Patnad, this is not your fault and you suffer from the sins of others who came before you...until those are your sins too.
Iyoba BatOni with help from Eileen H. Kramer -- March 31, 2014
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. |