Wrapping Up the Summer in SL New England

So I finally ended my house search by settling for a small cottage in New England. I chose this little place due to the theme purity of this sim complex. As a group of sims dedicated to the New England style, the fully furnished beach houses nestled on little island coves, complete with your own sail boat and pier are refreshing sights to behold. The complex is connected by wonderfully detailed New England villages that encourage wandering about and shopping in the unique little establishments. As a huge fan of theme specific residential areas, the theme intended here is hit spot on with the atmosphere created in New England, Mystic and Nantucket.

Not only are the houses reasonably priced, unique in individual style (no cookie cutter houses here) and quite realistic, but the community on these sims is extremely active in the areas of arts, entertainment, commerce and cultural events. Of all the places I have resided, this is by far the most active and close knit community I have encountered. However, the heavy event activity that takes place is also refreshing in the fact that the event locations (village squares) are very separated from the residential areas. Which means the events are close and part of your community, yet far enough away to still allow habitation in a fair amount of peace and quiet.

I could gush a little more about this series of sims, but it would be better to let you read about some of the unique features and events from the sims' own blog: http://www.slne.net/

Enjoy!

Sif

Mourning Michael Jackson in SL

Heading into SL last night, Michael Jackson was actually the last person on my mind. In fact, it was nice to get away from all of the media coverage and begin my search for a new home. However, as I entered "home rent" in the classified search box, the very first entry was a Michael Jackson In Memoriam sim. No, it was not for rent, which is odd that it popped up in this search, but it was at the top based on the number of people visiting this new sim. By last night, over 36,000 avatars had visited this memorial. Upon further searching it was later discovered that this sim is for sale with no neighbors for the bargain price of L$9900.

I will admit I was a bit shocked to see this Michael Jackson devoted sim.....but maybe only for a few seconds....because I quickly remembered that what happens in the world is mirrored in SL. This is a cultural extension of what we are experiencing in RL. As a result, my curiosity was piqued. A second search in the "All" category brought up a pretty decent showing for Michael Jackson related sims, products and music events. It was amazing to see how many music venues had switched their music over to all Michael Jackson and in Terra Bordeaux a "3D" concert was being held - well almost. Upon visiting said concert, I was unsure whether to categorize this as a sick joke or a legitimate caricature. The 3D Michael Jackson was one you could buy for yourself for a little over L$600, but the actual form of this avatar was so skeletal that is looked as if Michael had been dead for several weeks already. The addition of giant angel wings on the back did not help matters.....it really creeped me out and I was not surprised that there was no one else around to enjoy the "show". Besides, the caricature MJ was silent as the grave and the sim music was general pop with no MJ music around.
Ironically, there were some really nice memorials that allowed people to light candles or leave flowers and balloons. What was extremely interesting was the variety of international representation. Each memorial was inundated with mourners or curiosity seekers from around the world. I loved the little memorial outside of the Old Stone Church at Some Enchanted Evening. Visitors could read allowed their favorite quotes from the singer, or a devotional segment that comforted them. The only weird element I noticed here was a camping kiosk at a rate of L$2 per 10 minutes....not exactly memorial worthy.

One note as you travel around viewing the memorials.....many are as eccentric as MJ was in RL. Case in point: The memorial on the PassPort sim. The church-like setting with roses, candles, free t-shirts and loads of MJ pictures is great as you wander around listening to his music......but yes, that is a bald MJ in a glass coffin, just like Snow White, in front of the cross in the chapel. And be sure to watch as you walk around....try not to step on the dismembered bodies strewn around. You gotta love these fans.....memorializing him in a way only possible in SL!












Now back to house hunting!
Sif

The Danger of Sudden Homelessness in SL

For the past 9 months, I have been the proud renter of a lovely little island set in a sim designed to be a replica of Tuscany. The sim was very well designed early on, but soon changed piece by piece until my island was the only piece of the sim that remotely resembled Tuscany.

My rental agreement was well priced for a 4096 sqm island ($L2200 per week), with 937 prims. However, the rental restrictions were a bit odd, with no changes allowed in the areas of sim music choice, land elevations or visitor restriction. The limited rental permissions were due to the sim owner's desire to gain "purchase" along with rental. For $L7600, plus the same weekly rental, permissions were more liberal. I opted to try out the place for a few months, but music was not important to me and the shape of the island was what I liked about the place anyway, so I searched thoroughly for an Italian style home to plop on my island and continued to rent all these months without paying the purchase price since that was not a requirement.

I loved my place but was getting frustrated with the ever changing environment around me. My Tuscan sim soon changed into a mess of varied, chaotic neighbors who could switch to a tropical theme or build a giant house of cards next door without any land design restrictions imposed. Despite these horrid changes around me, I still loved my place.

Some of these changes increased after my landlord informed me that he was no longer the manager of the sim. I think he gave me the name of the new owner/manager, but my rental box was still paying the same manager, so life went on without much incident.

Due to some RL changes, my recent SL use has been very limited and the thought of letting my villa slip away was very tempting. My rental box had notified me that I had 2 days left before running out of rent. So the next day I attempted to enter the sim to pay for one more week to get some pictures and remove my stuff before letting the rent run out for the last time.

That's when it happened.....I attempted to go to my sim to pay the rental box, but the transport failed with an error that said the sim was down or no longer existed!! I waited a few more hours for another try and then tried again the next day, but all subsequent attempts failed to find my beloved, yet crazy sim.

After a few more attempts, I looked at the old manager's profile, and suddenly, my sim, which had been one of his picks, was no longer listed as it had been a couple of days ago. That convinced me that something was horribly wrong and so I contacted the former manager to ask what was going on. He explained that he was no longer the manager again, but failed to tell me what had happened. I also noticed that NONE of my personal property had been returned to my lost and found!! I was not only homeless, but ALL of my belongings had been stolen in the process!

I tried further to get some information out of my former landlord, but he would only provide a partial name of the avatar that had taken over.....I was smelling something very rotten in Tuscany (Tuskany Sim). After some bugging and hostile verbal exchanges, he finally offered to give me a new parcel in his other sim for the same price and to reimburse me for the lost property. I estimated about $L8000 since my structure and boat were copyable, and this would cover my furniture/garden losses. He paid me the money without hesitation and then left without any word or explanation.

I know the former manager now has a huge Itland sim with residential and commercial complexes, but after this fiasco, I wouldn't take him up on that offer for any sweetened deal imaginable. The owner is actually a native Italian which I thought would help with maintaining a traditional Tuscan style sim.....I thought wrong.

So there really isn't any moral to this story except that if something like this happens to you, you could complain to Linden for fraudulent behavior if the owner/landlord did not reimburse you....and there are mediation/litigation groups in SL, but I'm not sure how much power they actually have. However, in all of my rental experiences I never imagined anything like this could actually happen without any warning. Can you protect yourself? I doubt it unless you restrict your home/furniture purchases to copyable items, but that's not possible for most of the really creative items out there.

And of course, no one can reimburse you for all of the shopping time you took to get your home looking just right.....farewell fond villa, it was my favorite place so far....on to the next place.....maybe I'll go with a well established sim that has been around for a very long time....maybe that will help guard my rental investment.....but there are no guarantees.

Your friendly neighborhood nomad,
Sif

Reflections on a Year Well Lived

Just over a month ago Sifriya celebrated her rez day....well, I should say forgot about the rez day until some magazine colleagues surprised her with a party. It is so hard to believe that it has been a full year since little Sifriya was born. I refer to her as little because she did appear very child-like when she first arrived on Help Island. Everything was so amazingly new and exciting! I think her favorite pastime was taking pictures of herself in new areas discovered.

A year later, she still loves taking pictures....too many in fact.....but things have definitely changed for Sifriya. For starters, the population of SL has changed quite a bit. When I first arrived in SL, the average population in-world on any given evening was about 46,000. These days, the evening population runs about 86,000. An interesting observation about these population increases is the fluid nature of the new residents. The places I visited in Sifriya's early days seemed popular and well attended. However, popularity shifts quickly with the wind in some cases. Too many beautiful places that were frequently inhabited are now empty, and in several instances, erased from the grid. Of course, some of the hot spots are still popular a year later, but the formula needed to maintain the popularity seems to be a combination of dedication,
friendly people, beautiful atmosphere enhanced with a huge dash of luck.




What ever happened to Timeless?




All of this does not discount the fact that true talent in SL still abounds and can earn a nice amount of Lindens if the artist is persistent. There are still moments and experiences that render me a bit stunned in awe. The artistic talent alone is enough to keep coming back as some individuals continue to surprise when their creativity collides with the pixelated world of SL.

As for the more personal reflections, the year has provided a wealth of new friends and colleagues. It has also proven to be a new way to connect with current RL co-workers....all while joining in the exploration of educational uses of SL. These efforts are growing and new results are being produced, but there is still a long road ahead to making SL a well respected educational tool available to everyone. Yes, SL is free, but schools are not always equipped with current video cards capable of running SL. Things look promising, and virtual worlds will be used in the classroom, but the jury is still out whether SL has the future locked up in this area.
Listening to Stephen Hawking at NASA!

On another personal note....shall we talk about the many different looks of Sifriya over the year? Looking back, the phases are quite comical....from the stiff hair poking through her hat, to the blue hair days, to the wing fetish, to the Cruella Deville look, to the current look which has proven to be comfortable and fairly normal looking. All were fun, but over time I have found the extreme experimentation with appearance was restricted to my newbie months. Once I splurged for a purchased body and skin, I no longer felt the need to go overboard with the appearance choices. Even my hair choices seem to have relegated themselves to auburn, cinnamon or brown...blackened or highlighted, but that is the extent of the diversity these days.

In short, SL continues to provide a wonderful creative outlet for this right-brained human behind the avatar. It has also sparked new ideas within my profession as well as brought new friends into my life who continue to be a positive influence in so many wonderful ways. This one little avatar has definitely added positives to the life of her human.

For more fun-filled pictures of Sif's first year in SL, scroll to the bottom of this Blog
Here's to another productive and inspiring year!
Sif

Pay No Attention to That Avatar Behind the Green Curtain!

Places to shop are everywhere in SL, but it is a rare thing to stumble upon a shopping venue that is so well designed and full of fun activities to make you want to stay merely for the exploration and aesthetics value. The Magic of Oz SIM is just such a place and I highly encourage you take some time to experience this refreshing and visually stunning space! Kudos to creators and designers Jenne Dibou and Candy Cerveau for such a beautiful addition to SL!

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Magic%20of%20Oz/130/152/0

Upon arrival at the central landing point you have the choice to follow the yellow brick road to various places full of fun adventure and wonderful products. Up the hill to the Emerald City.

How many SIMs allow you to play the wizard in the Emerald City?

Hanging out in the Emerald City where you will find mostly jewelry for sale.

Munchkin Land is a place that really shows off the textural quality of the Magic of Oz and includes many various shops.

Hanging around with the scarecrows just outside Munchkin Land.

Across the SIM to the witches castle full of various products and creepy activities. Flying monkeys anyone?

Ok, so I admit it, the flying monkeys were really creepy, but just walk by them slowly with no sudden movements and you should be fine, I think!

See you in Oz!

Sif

Welcoming 2009 at the Bubbly Nightclub!

New Year's Eve is one hot event in SL....revelers are dressed to the nines, and every hour there is a New Year somewhere in the world to celebrate with a kiss! It goes without saying that the romantic ballrooms and clubs are jam packed with couples and singles alike. If you haven't visited some of the romantic dancing places in SL, you're missing quite an experience. From blues to salsa to formal ballroom, several wonderful venues exist to suit your mood. Regardless of choice, the most popular places have several things in common: great music, detailed romantic atmosphere, friendly staff, beautiful dancing animations and shopping on the side. The one problem with many of these popular venues is the lag. Many evenings, the number of avatars present, dancing with complex flexi attachments makes rezzing and walking somewhat of a drag. So it is a great delight to find lesser known places with all of the qualities of the popular ones.
I stumbled upon the Bubbly Nightclub on the Ratopolis Sim about a month ago, but hadn't actually been back for dancing until last night. What a special night to choose this romantic spot! The architecture is very stately with warm toned marble/granite and ocean views. The dance floor is a perfect size flanked by long windows, columns and red curtains while the second floor contains a fully functional dining experience. Best of all, this place was gorgeous without the extreme lag! There were several couples enjoying this place, but not nearly as many as the main romance hotspots. The music was a perfect blend of vintage romantic vocal jazz and slow big band. A reminder that the dress code is formal at Bubbly, and if you need any help picking out that special attire, there are many shops and a wedding chapel across the bridges on the Mediterranean style port (looks like architecture by Barnesworth Anubis which creates the ultimate seaside romantic atmosphere). Be sure to head around behind the ballroom toward the ocean after walking down the stairs....there are proposal animations, a gondola ride and wine cellar underneath the ballroom....this helps Bubbly live up to its mantra: Where Romance is Alive!

Bubbly sure knew how to decorate beautifully for the evening, and the dance animations were very romantic. One of them even included this sweet kiss animation, just perfect for the stroke of midnight! Happy New Year everyone! Here's to a hopefully brighter year! Bubbly will definitely be one of my favs this year!
Sif