SL Reading Matter

Readers may have noticed that the 'Links' section for this blog has undergone a facelift. Hopefully this will make it easier to use. I will take this opportunity to give my thoughts on the links in the 'Periodicals' section. And it gives me an opportunity to post a 'filler', as I have no pictures to post at the moment, my time being spent finishing Melissa's garden rather than exploring. I hope to be more interesting soon though, dear reader!

At the top of my reading list is The Metaverse Messenger. Indeed this weekly SLzine should be at the top of every residents reading list! Packed with comment on recent events past and announcements of events forthcoming, it is the essential guide to what's on in the Grid each and every week. The regular columns by Phoenix Psaltery and Norinn Richard are masterpieces of the journalists art, and Resident Of The Week and Sim Of The Week give us all something to aspire to. It also has a feature for the Goreans amongst you, The Tarn Telegraph. Available for download from their website, MM is also widely available in the Grid. For Free! So Read It!

The other 3 SLzines I can speak about are all monthlies. Slatenight Magazine is a recent discovery for me, but what a gem! Packed with articles on all aspects of SL, I particularly like those written by Tulipe Lafleur, dealing as they do with intimate relationships on the Grid. Also available for download, this publication will surely go from strength to strength. Another must-read!

Konstrukt Magazine is a forum for amateur writers, and contains a good mix of well-written articles. The current issue contains some great pieces, including a guide to the Gorean Sims, and the whole Gorean thing in general. Not my cup of decaff Earl Grey, but an eyeopener none the less. Again available as a download from their website.

In The Grid is a new zine, the current issue being their first. Run entirely by Miller Copeland, it is available as a PDF and as a HUD. The website is also updated daily, and contains a lot more than the other two formats, which are monthly digests. I have to take my hat off to Miller, this is a very slick production, but I guess one should expect such from a RL publisher! The feature article is on Edgeplay, again not my cup of tea at all, and I wonder whether it was chosen as such for its 'controversy value', as a means of setting ITG apart from the others. Whatever, this is a very readable zine, and I shall be following it with interest.

I can't say much about Pixel Pulse, save that it is dedicated to exploring the darker side of sexuality in SL (yawn) and is available in-Grid from Midnight City for around L$60. I had a fairly dissolute youth, and thus explored my sexuality in some detail years ago, so this sort of zine bores me, but I am sure that it appeals to some, and I applaud them for bringing such a publication to market. I applaud anything that strays from the 'safe zone' in either world, whether I approve of it or not, for only with such people in the world do we know we are still alive as a society, and not in the land of the living dead - yet!

So a mixed bag of reading matter, and I hope this short review has at least piqued your interest in these zines, and that you will go read them for yourself. As more publications appear, I will repeat this exercise again. Hard life, this blogging!

My Pixel Doll

If you read Melissa's blog (and you really should, it's the best SL blog I know of) you will know that she was lucky enough to be taken shopping by a very generous lady. She went to Pixel Doll, which was - indeed still is - having a sale. I asked her if they did menswear, and as they did, we went to see if there was anything suitable for me.

Sadly, shirts with collars and ties don't really suit me, and neither do hats. So I had to console myself with buying my beloved another top for herself! This is not it that she is wearing here, but it is by the same designer. I think the shop must have been named after Melissa, for she is my Pixel Doll!

Return To Svarga

Yesterday I went back to have another look around the amazing sim of Svarga, this time in the wonderful company of Melissa. Sadly TimTam was on his break, as the guided tour wouldn't initiate, so instead we teleported to the store and took off on foot to explore the caldera. In the store we met a nice chap named Veter, from Holland, and had a chat to him for a while. Then we took in the incredible views, two of which are pictured here. After crossing the walkway we sat for a while by a campfire, and I gazed lovingly at Melissa, her skin illuminated in the most wonderful tones by the firelight.

If you have yet to go to Svarga, why?

A Rose By Any Other Name

A new plant has appeared on the Grid. Thanks to the amazing work of Enchant Jaques, residents can now get their hands on a white rose bush! And a beauty it is too! Now I can really move on with Melissa's rose garden.

The new rose will be available from The Enchanted Garden Centre, which I can personally recommend for a wide range of other plants too. It has been named Melissa Yeuxdoux Special Edition, which makes me very happy! Here you can see it next to the woman who inspired its creation. No prizes for guessing which of these two rare blooms I find most attractive!

House Hunting

Whilst I may have some small talent for landscaping and garden design, I think building a house from scratch is a bit beyond me at the moment. If I am to provide Melissa with a house that is worthy of her, it will need to be something special, and these two are just that.

Created by Julia Hathor and on display in that paradise of a showroom known as Shadow Brook, these dwellings are fantastic. The top picture is of the Briar Cottage model, and the other shows the Apple Grove Manor. Both are spacious two-storey properties, but Apple Grove Manor has the added attraction of a wonderful conservatory. It also has a staircase, whereas Briar Cottage saves prims by using a teleporter to get between floors. Both are very reasonably priced, and come with security doors and a wealth of other features. The blurb says that they are easy to set up - but thats what Ikea says about its flatpaks! Watch this space to see the fun I have putting one of them together.

The Most Beautiful Flower In Any Garden

Melissa, standing in her garden, outshining every rose in it. She is wearing a lovely top with a floral motif, but I don't think this picture shows it to best effect. Still, she is by far the most beautiful creation on the Grid, peerless and matchless though I am sure many may try. Ought to save their time really, and do something they can succeed at, eh?

More Help In The Garden

This is Lillith Heart, of The Heart Garden Centre, another plantswoman of incredible talent and skill. She is providing me with all the climbing and standard roses in Melissa's Garden. The Heart Garden Centre can be found in Plush, Iota.

Methinks it is no coincidence that the two best creators of plants on the Grid are both women.

The Garden Help

The garden I am creating for Melissa is coming along nicely, and a theme is emerging. This is a true labour of love in the best sense, as I am building it for my love to celebrate the love I have for her and the love we share together.

The hard landscaping has been easy, the hedges, paths and steps coming together a lot quicker than I had thought they would. However it will be the plants that truly make it a place of beauty and romance, and for that I rely on the real horticulturalists. Here I am honoured to show my work to the renowned plantswoman Enchant Jaques, and her husband Leto Yoshiro. Enchant owns and runs The Enchanted Garden Centre, which I have been using heavily for the rose bushes you can see.

Did you know no one produces a white rose bush in SL? Well it's true, a lot of people do red etc, and Enchant produces the best of those, but no white. So Enchant has kindly agreed to look into creating a white rose bush for this garden! Perhaps I can get her to call it "Melissa" when it goes on sale to the public! Unless of course - and I'm sure someone will tell me there is - a variety of rose called Melissa already exists. I wonder if it's a white rose?

New Paris, SecondCity Of Romance

Paris, France is world-renowned as the city of Romance in RL, especially in springtime. The Grid has its equivalent (of course!) in New Paris. We went there this morning to catch the sunrise (middle picture) over La Tour Eiffel (gender?), and I'm afraid that is all I saw of the city! Melissa looked breathtakingly, heart breakingly beautiful, as can be seen from the top photo. The Tower is as faithful a reconstruction of the real thing as I can remember from flying over it at night some decades a go, albeit a bit shorter. Well worth going all the way to the Crow's Nest, from where I took the shot of the dawn breaking.

New Paris is a city for lovers, so take your sweetheart and see what happens in that magical place (bottom photo). Some wonderful poseballs are provided for your use as well. It may only be its association with its RL antecedent, but there was definitely something about this sim that increased the romance of time spent with my beloved a hundredfold. You can read for yourself what Melissa thought of it all here.

Be wary of the hawkers though, as I was propostioned by a passing chancer whilst in the midst of a passionate embrace (some people have no soul!). He offered to sell me whatever I wanted, but I just thanked him for the kind offer, and told him I was good. Indeed, what more could I ever want than to be in love with Melissa? So keep an eye out for these sorts. Thinking about it a bit further, this sim really is a faithful reproduction of Old Paris!

Saving Svarga

I hope you will have read the entry referring to the Svarga sim in my beloved's blog. If not (shame on you!) you can find it here. You should also follow her advice, and check out the detailed story in New World Notes, to which she has linked.

Svarga is a place that defies description. Created by Laukosargas Svarog, it is an artificial ecosystem, with plants and animals all living in a functioning virtual biosphere. Built on and in an ancient volcano and the surrounding islands, Svarga will take your breath away. The first picture is me at the start of the guided tour, conducted by the very personable coracle TimTam. This brief tour takes you around the caldera of the volcano, over to one of the islands, and then back to the teleport area, from where you can then jump to the store and the rest of the sim. It is a very good little tour, explaining just enough, and showing you just enough, to whet your appetite for a longer, leisurely walk around the sim. TimTam recommends you use mouselook during its tour, and I thoroughly concur.

The store contains all manner of treats, and is worth a visit if only to look at Laukosargas' creations. Naturally I did my bit and bought a couple of things! Then you leave the store, and can visit the rest of the island as you wish. The second shot is looking over the sim from one of the walkways, and the bottom picture is of the incredible building that acts as a hub for all the walkways. Truly a wonder of design. I did not explore fully, there is simply too much to take in on a single visit, but TimTam's list of attractions includes;
The caldera bottom, where there is an artificial life experiment in progress.
The sound experiment on an ancillary platform, where music is generated by visitors' chat.
The castle, which contains playable musical instruments for a jam with friends.
The Reading Room, and
The Ambipod, a relaxation area which I must visit at some point, in order to report back to you all, gentle reader.

Why the call to save Svarga? Well, Ms Svarogs off-Grid commitments are such that she is having to take time out for a while, and a group has been formed to keep the sim running in her absence. More details can be found in the NWN article mentioned at the start of this post, but in brief, the group headed by FlipperPa Peregrine is looking for people with unused tier, and who are willing to donate some of it to help spread the cost of keeping Svarga on the Grid, currently running at $200 a month. And that's US, not Linden! IM Flipper if you can help - I have already, being the eco-warrior I am, every square metre of tier donated will help.

Why bother? Well, apart from being a joy to visit, Svarga is one of the showcase sims on the Grid, and as such attracts a lot of favourable publicity for SL as a whole. It is also a genuine experiment in the creation of artificial lifeforms, that can coexist in a working cyber-ecosystem, and thus has a wealth of academic value to the world in general. Visit Svarga, and make up your own mind.

PM Adult

I hope there will come a time for all my readers when they meet that someone special, and something more than just a Hug Attachment is required in order to demonstate your affections for each other. Poseballs are the answer! There are many producers of anims for couples, but the company that Melissa and I would recommend is PM Adult. This is a shot of the entrance to their store, flanked by giant mannequins of the sort used by animators when producing their creations. PM Adult is run by Phil Murdock and Snow Hare, and grew out of their own need for loving animations. Whilst they do have a wide range of anims for every page of the Kama Sutra and The Perfumed Garden, Melissa and I can only vouch for their romantic ones, the kisses, cuddles and caresses. They are incredibly well produced, and detailed right down to facial expressions.The effect of watching your avatar engaged in romance with that special other avatar using these poseballs is something that has to be seen to be believed! They also produce furniture preloaded with poses, and are distributors for PoseCubes, a system that allows you to load many anims into one container, thus cutting down on prims and clutter. I can also vouch for their excellent customer service, as Phil is a very helpful person, and will always get back to you with an answer if you have a query about their products.

Perfect Moment

Here are two shots, from the many I took, of a wonderful morning (although the Grid was experiencing a fabulous sunset at the time) spent in the Lost Gardens of Apollo with Melissa.

There is no doubt in my mind that she is a Goddess from the Classical period, as the scale of the place, although awe-inspiring in its majesty, did not overwhelm her presence. It is the sign of true beauty that it cannot be outshone by its surroundings. And awe-inspiring the place certainly is - again my humble snapshots do not do it justice, so go there as soon as you can, and experience for yourself this marvel of the Grid.

Melissa looked truly divine here, and for once I did not feel overwhelmed by her beauty, but actually nourished and warmed by it. It is a cross that I carry with me, this curse of low self-esteem, and it has been the death of more than one beautiful friendship, but today, in these magical surroundings, in the very best of company, my burden fell from my shoulders and I was free to feel at peace, content just to let the moment be and bask in its meaning. Virtual world it may be, but if you are prepared to let it touch you, SL contains some fantastic balms for the soul.

Seacliff

Took a lovely walk with Melissa today, to the area of Seacliff. She has posted an account of this (un)natural wonder to her blog, so I recommend you read it, if nothing else for the wonderful pictures she has taken. If you can drag your eyes from the other picture she posted today! (I am of course addressing the male readers with that comment!).

Joking aside, Seacliff is a fantastic place, and its creators (imagineers?) have built a pearl of a sim. Do visit it, alone or better still in company. So that's two recommendations for it now!

Mr October

Melissa is always sending me fantastic shots of herself, some of which I have posted here. I'm sure you will all agree that she has a great eye for positioning a shot, and superb material to work with!

So I thought I would have a go, and do some shots of me for her. As you can see from this example, I seem to have created Beefcakes 2006! calendar for the boys! And I thought that a bit of muscle and tone was all it took to be pleasing to the ladies! Back to the drawing board for this avatar, when I have finished building our house and garden!

Work Continues Apace

At the risk of boring my regular reader (Hi Melissa!) I post here a shot of further progress on the build at the Scaggs-Yeuxdoux Estate. The paths are now sand, as that is closer to the colour I had envisaged, and the formal design is coming along nicely. It seems to have taken on a completely different look to the Renaissance theme I started with, now looking more Hispanic-cum-Moorish with the fountains and orange trees. Our humble dwelling is similarly styled too, but affords a higher degree of luxury than either a tent or roofless walls! The one problem with this build so far is its primminess, so doubtless another session at the Ivory tower is called for, to learn some primficiency urgently!

Ballooning

Melissa and I took a balloon ride today, from The Shelter, in Isabel. We had seen these tours advertised in the Metaverse Messenger (a link is in my Links section) and thought it would be a wonderful way to spend some time together, away from the building site that is our estate.

The balloons are fantastic creations, seating up to eight passengers, and with plenty of room to walk around in the gondola too. Twas a shame though, as Melissa pointed out, that there wasn't even one love seat (that's my girl!), and no musical accompaniment either. Still and all, the flight was very smooth, and the views spectacular.

This must have been a beta tour, as we halted at the first waypoint, and went no further. There was a notice stating that we should IM the builder if the balloon got stuck, but sadly he was offline, so there wasn't much point at the time. I'm sure though that this is something we will do again. If you haven't taken one of these tours yet, get down to the Shelter pronto!

Jeepers Creepers!

You will no doubt have noticed from her pictures that Melissa has the most amazing green eyes. I thought it was about time I took my shades off and let the poor lass see mine, too, but sadly my default eyes were only a monochrome set. So I went in search of some new ones (very Minority Report!) and found these at Alady Designs. Created by KittyCat Rosebud, they are called "Stained Glass Blue Water", and were very reasonable at only L$25. I also got myself an Indigo set and a deeper Blue set, both L$15 each, so if Melissa isn't keen on this pair, I have two others for her to choose from!

Progress Report

Two views of the work being carried out on our garden in Huchu. The hedge around the boundary is done, and now paths are being placed along with some ornamentation. Textures need to be finalised (the gravel is the wrong colour) and a final layout achieved, but I think I have made a good start. After all, I'm no Alan Titchmarsh or Geoff Hamilton! But I am having fun, and learning all the time as this build continues. If only it were this easy in my real-world garden!

Counting For Something

On October 15/16, residents of the Grid had the opportunity to take part in an event that had the potential to change the real world. The Millenium Campaign orghanised a global Stand Up!, where people across both worlds could do just that, as a way of reminding real-world governments of the commitments they made to ending global poverty six years ago.

Here I am, adopting the Stand Up! pose after clicking on the white wrist band I purchased from a vendor in Midnight City, one of many across the Grid. By doing this, I like every other resident who did so, will be counted towards a Guiness World Record for the most people standing up against poverty. There has been a lot of discussion on various forums (forae?) about the point of doing this in a virtual world, but for me it demonstrates some of the possibilities that SL has, to change things for the better in RL. Indeed, I have heard more about this event through various Grid sources than anywhere in RL! I hope many other residents took part, in either or both of their lives, and I hope too that this sort of event will not be the first and last of its kind here.

Another Little Thing....

...that makes me feel very safe indeed. I hope this photo shows it, perhaps not to best effect, but here Melissa is wearing a ring. A very special ring, to me, as it is the one I bought her as an expression of my undying love for her, and my commitment to remain true to her. Sapphire and diamond, her birthstone accompanied by the stone of a love that lasts beyond time itself. You could have knocked me down with a feather when she accepted it, and put it upon that finger!

Perhaps I put too much importance on a ring made of pixels, but perhaps those who have found a new love on the Grid can understand the sentiments behind it. In my First Life, I have had my fair share of knockbacks, and many of them I deserved (some would say all of them), so I have never given a ring out of love before, save as a birthday gift. Even trinkets such as they caused me pain in the end. Never a ring given purely for love though. Perhaps that is why I haven't had the luck I would've wanted! This is not the forum for such a discussion.

So when Melissa came into my Second Life, imagine my surprise at the feelings that welled up inside me. For the first time in either life, I wanted to make a demonstration of my love for someone. Then to actually screw up my courage, go out and purchase what I hoped would be an appropriate token, and then to dare to give the gift! Another example of how SL allows us to be a different person to who we are in RL, freed of the shackles that bind us to a reality that is oft times harsh and empty of meaning. And then to have my gift, my love token, accepted! By a woman whose beauty outstrips all the words I could use to describe it, who took my ring with love and warmth, sensitive to my fragile heart, and who wears it now, in public too! What more can any man, or woman, or furry, want than someone who accepts them as they are, however silly, however foolish, however fragile.

Yes, I have a partner in RL, and so does Melissa. In my relationship, there have not been, nor will there be any rings given by either party. Sad? Realistic. The Grid has not only given me a Second Life, but a Second Chance at being the lover I want to be, romantic, a giver of gifts and of courtly prose. First Life relationships are completely seperate from those in Second Life, at least for me, as I am a different person on the Grid. Better looking, for a start! No doubt I will have my detractors for declaring my love for someone other than my RL partner, but let them walk a mile in my shoes, or live a day as me in my life, before they pass judgement, on me or Melissa. I would do no less for them.

It's The Little Things...

...that make us feel safe. This is a shot (much enlarged) of our estate's security system. Made by Omega Concerns, this anonymous little plate will eject any resident not on the permitted list from our property, and ban them for a variable length of time. Repeat trespassers can even be permanently banned! This device does fall within the guidelines set by LL, as it is set to protect only our property, within the boundaries of our land.

Much hilarity was had whilst setting it up. The device is quite sensitive, and unfortunately the range setting was such that it nabbed one of my neighbours on her own land! She was very understanding about it, and the unit is set to cover only our property margins now. At least she could confirm the unit worked! And with this unit, we have been able to remove the hideous No Entry cordon from our land, thus restoring the outlook in the region.

I suppose it is a sad comment on society, when even in a virtual world one has to take steps to secure what is one's own, but the Grid is open to all, with no test of virtue that must be passed before entering. Thus, just as in the real world, one finds people of varying degrees of trustworthiness in SL. At least there are units like this one to help keep the 'nice' people safe and the 'bad' people away.

New Home, New Neighbours

Our nearest neighbour is Brad McConnell. You can see what he has done with his plot, and very nice it is too! Apparently, the main house is modelled on his actual house in RL, which is over 200 years old, and something of a landmark in his hometown.

As with the majority of people I have met on the Grid, Brad is a very personable chap. He lives on his land by himself at the moment, but his RL wife is also a resident of SL, and has her own island! They meet up on the Grid for fun times together, which I think is a wonderful thing! Old softy that I am! He is a lucky man, although he doesn't have a Melissa, so he is not as lucky as me!

As a neighbour, Brad has access across my land, and I his, so that he is not blocked should he want to travel to the other side of the Scaggs-Yeuxdoux Estate. He actually has a security device which teleports unwanted visitors off the land. This is something I think I shall get, as the red No Entry lines around the site can look unsightly, which is not something I want to bring to the Grid. Here in SL, beauty is all, and I want our estate to be a part of that beauty, a reflection of the beauty I see whenever I behold Melissa.

A Visit From On High

Although I am the owner of the land, I want Melissa to have equal rights and privileges regarding access and use. The way to do this was to set up a Group, just for the two of us, and set the abilities of the roles within that group. It also gave me a chance to change the titles of the roles, from Owner or Officer to something more appropriate! I made Melissa an Officer, as that way she has all the privileges of an Owner, but without the attendant liability for Group land fees.

However, I was having a bit of trouble with this, so called on the Live Help facility that SL has. This is staffed entirely by residents known as Lindens (all staff at Linden Labs in RL), and lovingly referred to as Gods by all. I got through to Hermia Linden, and explained my difficulty. Imagine my suprise when he/she/it actually turned up to help me in person! I may have dented their ego somewhat, as when asked to forgive their scary appearance, I pointed out that they looked more cute than frightening! But as they say, to err is human, forgiveness divine, and this particular divinity seemed to survive my attempt at wit.

It took less time to sort my problem out than it does to write this entry, and now Melissa has full access to the Group land, and can set her Home location to here, should she want to. I have actually deeded all the land to our private Group of two, as that we we get a 10% bonus on the amount of land the Group can hold, per tier of fees. Now to wait for a nearby plot to come on the market!

Moving On Up

Welcome to the Scaggs-Yeuxdoux Estate! Yes, with Newhaven being battered by all the neighbours' terraforming, I decided to move upscale and find us a larger, less overlooked plot. After a fairly exhaustive and exhausting search, I found this. Four adjacent plots, in the region of Huchu. Whilst we do have neighbours, one of whom is the Ambassador Club, we now have all the space and privacy we could want.

The task now is to create a house and garden in the Renaissance style. For what else could my lady Melissa deserve, but that which her heart desires?

Gentle On The Eye

Today was spent with Melissa, and then a lot of time spent reworking our new land, and tracking about the Grid looking for another possible plot. Taedong has filled up very quickly, and suddenly we find neighbours almost on top of us in every direction!

So with no time for a relevant picture, here is one of my beloved. I guess it is relevant, in as much as this is Melissa wearing the dress I bought for her and which she wore today, but it is a photo she took and sent to me. Can't deny that she has a better eye for this kind of portrait shot than I do!

Tented Living

Here are two shots of Newhaven (might have to change that name, bit twee, though not as bad as Dunroamin'), with a few items placed on it to get an idea of the space we have, and the scale of objects in relation to each other. The tent is a freebie, as in fact is everything but the chaise. With a bit of care, you can pick up almost everything you need for your first home from a freebie store, including several different types of house!

The lower view shows the length of the plot well. After having removed the on-site trees, by returning them to Governor Linden, the whole plot was flattened. As you can see, this has led to the formation of quite a pleasing plateau. The tent was then erected, and oriented to give a view down the length of the site. I placed some cypresses around it, again these were a freebie, I think from Albion Park. This provides some screening for the tent, and restores the wooded look, so that the site doesn't stand out too much from the surroundings, but has its own look.

At the opposite end to the tent, I placed a small orange grove, and then two boulders, which look a bit like dolmens, placed so as to highlight the two corners, and give a sense of ownership and a boundary without the need for a fence. The site has got access control on it, however, for although SL is a new and mostly very friendly community, there will always be people all too ready to take advantage of the fact that others might be less cautious with their possessions than they otherwise would. It has taken a while to get the few possessions that I have in SL, and I would be most miffed if someone just decided to help themselves and make off with them. An object is only a freebie if it is so marked. On the whole, I think the site looks quite pleasing. With only a relatively low prim allowance, one has to be efficient with what one puts on the parcel, but even then it is easy to get carried away and cram too much stuff on.

The upper picture is a close up of the tent, to show something of the interior. As previously mentioned, everything on site bar the chaise has come from freebie stores, in this case the bed and the rug. The chaise was a bit pricey, but it came with a nice animation attached to it, and one should always have the best furniture one can afford, shouldn't one? I have also added a couple more romantic anims to the furniture, to make time spent with Melissa even more pleasant, though sadly the more pleasant the experience, the sooner it seems to be over! Stop sniggering at the back there!

Meeting The Neighbours

Not long after purchasing our plot, I met one of our new neighbours. Oswald Sumbula is a graphic/ web designer, and a very nice chap with it. He, like me, has bought a piece of First Land in
Taedong, where he intends to set up a base for his company, Oswald Designs.

Here he is standing outside his new building, which he put together in a few short hours. As you can see, he is an accomplished builder, although he likes to think otherwise. A very good design, with clean lines and a lightness to the structure that makes it seem less imposing than it might have done. A building like this, along with such a nice chap as Oswald, will hopefully go a long way to setting a friendly tone for this new area of settlement.

Newhaven

I think everyone in SL ends up wanting to own a piece of it, and now I have taken the jump. I needed to upgrade to a Premium Account, but at such a low rate for all that I get out of SL, $9.99 a month is nothing.

New residents, those who haven't owned land before, can take advantage of a land ownership scheme called First Land. This gets you a plot of 512sqm for a L$1 a sqm, a lot less than on the open market. This is an excellent way to get onto the land ladder, as one can then sell on your first plot at market rates, and hopefully make enough to buy a bigger parcel elsewhere. There are other fees involved, but these depend on plot size, and as First Land plots fall into the bracket that attracts no further charges, your L$512 payment is a one-time payment for a nice sized parcel.

So this is my plot, in the region of Taedong. There are a number of neighbouring plots that are in the First Land scheme, so I expect to have neighbours very soon! Did I say my plot? I meant our plot, as of course this land is as much Melissa's as it is mine. Hopefully we shall enjoy many close moments here in the days to come.

I put a bench there for the purposes of the photo, to show which bit is ours, but am now in the process of building a house. First the land has to levelled, using the Terrain Editor. Then you start placing objects, or your house. This plot allows you to use up to 117 prims, so any building needs to be fairly simple. At the moment Melissa and I have a tent! As she is a builder, Melissa will be mainly in charge of creating the house, and I shall have a stab at landscaping a garden. Expect more photos soon!

A Rare Glimpse

So the Grid is down, because some spotty little f*ckwit thought that it would be, like, a cooolll thing to do, man. Yeah, right dude, you really struck a blow against the corporate tyranny, eh? Thrown back onto my resources in this life, I find to my dismay that I have misplaced them. So with nothing of interest to report, I offer now a glimpse into what RL can be like for someone to whom SL means more than probably it should. Behold, as the veil is lifted....

Afternoon in an armpit of a village, in the backside of the world known as Somerset. Yes, I hate this place with a passion. Would that I were back in my beloved Gloucester, not my hometown but the place dearest to me, having spent 10 years and a lot of other parts of my life there. Longest I've spent in any one place, to be exact. But she didn't like it, and this house was cheap (in need of modernisation...), large garden perfect for the cats, so she bought it and here we now reside. Rain lashes down on the roof of the conservatory, which leaks.

The Grid is down! Has been all day so far. After a long weekend of longing, there will be no much-awaited reunion with my darling Melissa. Emails pass back and forth, my pain at a further day without her arms around me hopefully, but barely, concealed. Yes, dear reader, I do have a partner in RL, but time takes its toll (I'm what has come to be known as a serial monogamist, into what could easily be the closing stages of my third long-term relationship in fifteen years, seemingly unable to make any of them get past the five year mark), and with distance comes a heightened sense of intimacy. At least it does for me, the effort involved in a text-based courtship paying much higher rewards than one carried out face to face. You can't see what a person really thinks of you when all you have are their words coming up in a chat box in front of you.

Checked the Grid Status again. Still down. Over to the forums, to see what news there is from Jeska Linden. Ah, they are working on a patch, great news! After reading some of the comments that are left on the Official Linden Blog with regard to outages and other grid attacks, I think I will be different and show my appreciation for all the hard work that the Lindens put in when something like this happens. Private message to Jeska;

Dear Ms Linden,I'm no-one special, not even in SL(!), but I thought I would drop you a quick note to say that I really appreciate all your hard work to keep the Grid up and running, sometimes more than I can say. If it wasn't for you and the rest of the amazing people there at LL, I'd never have met the one person in SL who makes life worthwhile...

And just as I am typing these words, the Grateful Dead, keeping me company through the medium of a small plastic disc spinning fiercely in my hifi, strike up with 'Ripple'. Suddenly the import of the words I have just written hit me. Sat here, on a wooden chair with legs of unequal length, in the corner of a room that is still awaiting the attentions of the plasterer and the painter, devoid of much that make our modern lives bearable; in a house that I am too ill to work on, and wouldn't be able too anyway, for if I were not signed off with some form of gall-bladder disease I would be at work, doing a job that I love for people I cannot stand; in a place I have no love for, many miles away from those I am fortunate enough to call friends, and further still from a family that I should have more time for; struck down by a condition that I have no name for yet, but have my suspicions could be something more than just a stone lodged somewhere in a part of me I have little use for, with the pain breaking through meds that I have had to cut back on because the pharmacist likes to make people wait at least 48 hours for a repeat prescription; after a weekend when I have been so ill that I have been able to do nought but watch as she carries on with the DIY, knowing that I should be helping but can't, instead keeping out of the way so that I don't get under foot; living with someone who I have loved, and probably still do, but not as much as I have done, because of all that has passed between us in four short years, a result of me being who I am, a woman I have cared for when she was ill in her turn, and who I now hide as much of my pain from as possible, because I know how hard it is to love someone who is so ill they cannot return it except as a bitter, twisted version of affection born of suffering; with a body that has not been able to share intimacy for a while now, again because of the pain, fatigue, nausea, fevers, nightsweats and the meds themselves, and that wonders if it ever will again, or remember how to; with weeks still to go before my CT scan, and then more than likely weeks more to wait for an endoscopic ultrasound investigation, before they can tell me what has laid me so low, and yet more weeks before any surgery, if that is what is deemed necessary;

and the tears roll unhindered and unlooked for down my cheeks. With such a picture of bleak emptiness as I live with in the present, and so much won and lost behind me; the one person in my life who I feel a real depth of emotion for, who makes the morning worth rising for, to steal an hour or so of private tenderness with; Melissa, the woman who fills my thoughts and oft my dreams should I be lucky enough to have any, who has me living half my life in a different time zone, as whenever I look at a clock I am calculating how old the day is with her; this beauty who is made of pixels not flesh and who moves to the prompting of processors rather than bone, muscle and nerves; my one reason for bothering to keep breathing some days, who I know only through her typed words, though they be more precious to me than all the riches of man;

this one person for whom I live, is now kept from me, through no fault of our own. The folly of such a predicament becomes too much to bear, and so I weep. Self pity? A release of fear and tension? The sole outlet of my anger and frustration at those who have done this wicked deed? The impact of far too many weeks taking a high dose of Tramadol? The longing of one soul for another? I do not know, but I suspect it was all of these and none of these besides. Whatever the reason, there can be few things more unappealling to look at than a man sobbing his heart out, alone in a cold house on a rainswept afternoon.

The tears eventually stop, the song changes. Another dose of nicotine, and another cup of decaffinated Earl Grey tea, lightly cut with soy milk. And I am me for another day, emptied at last of some of my woes. The point of this? Only to show that for one timid, frightened soul in this life we share, when sometimes things get a bit too real to bear, then Second Life is where I can go for my solace, where I can meet people who inspire joy in me, and where resides the one person in particular who has the power to make me feel more than human, more than a mere man again. The Grid can be all things to all people, and probably no two residents will see it quite the same, and whilst for everyone of us it is a precious resource to be cherished and not vandalised, for me at least it is where I truly come to life, be it my first or otherwise. And whilst I do not know this, I believe that I am not the only person in the 'real' world who finds themself more alive in a virtual one.

The veil is dropped, the boundary between two worlds restored. Normal service will resumed tomorrow, Lindens willing, and I shall return with more tales of much buffoonery and little substance. Fingers crossed, eh?

My First Build!

Six posts in one day! Well I am sadly going to be off the Grid for a couple of days (I'm sure Melissa could do with a break, anyway!) so I thought I'd give you plenty to read before next Monday.

Everyone in SL aspires to being a builder, and I am no exception. Here I proudly display my first real creation, a blue glass! The table on which it stands is a freebie, but the goblet itself is all my own work. Made from three sections - the base, stem and bulb - I am pleasantly surprised at the outcome. It even seems to fit together from any of the 360 degrees around it!

Many thanks indeed are due to the people at the Ivory Tower (see the previous post of that name), for before I started on their Learning Programme, all I could produce were funny-shaped-and-coloured disasters! I'm not sure I'm going to make my first Linden Million with items like this, but as someone once said, a journey of a thousand miles starts with but a single step. Now to move on to the decanter!

Ginny Gremlin Park

It would be easy to think that this blog was turning into the Melissa Yeuxdoux fansite, and that in itself would be no bad thing, but here I provide a picture of a gem of a park that could easily be missed by the newcomer to Second Life. Arriving as the newbie does in NCI Plaza, what with all the information terminals telling you how to interface with the Grid, and the shops giving away a cornucopia of freebies, I wonder how many of them notice this green space located on the other side of the Sandbox?

I must admit it was a while before I found it, but I am surely glad I did. The fountain here shown is just inside the gates (not sure who the unwitting model is), and the bridge beyond leads across a weir to some wonderful parkland. Given that SL was set up, in part at least, to give people the opportunity to experience something beyond their daily grind, this place provides them with some space and tranquility. Perhaps it's not so bad that it seems a little overlooked, after all.

Dancin' And Romancin' Atop The Volcano

Here are two more shots of the day spent with my beloved, again in the lounge perched high up on a narrow spine of rock, at Ga'l Volcano Mountain Top.

The lower shot shows us dancing like loons, to no musical accompaniment! I'm sure there should be, but for us the proffered stream just didn't want to play. The dance ball animating us was called Salop Dance 1.0. Neither of us could bring to mind a style of dance known as Salop though, which probably explains why the moves made up quite a bizarre sequence! But we laughed like drains, so it had the desired effect!

The other picture, at the top, shows the two of us enjoying a quieter, more intimate moment, after I took up her invitation to join her on the seat she was posed upon in the previous post. It was the perfect counterpoint to the wild abandon of our dancing, and neither moment will fade quickly from my memory. There were other moments we spent together that were more intimate still, but they are not for public consumption. Some things that two people share in private just aren't.

To sum up the day, wonderful, spent in the company of a wonderful human being. If you have someone you want to get close to, there are worse places to do so than Hephaestus Forge and Ga'l Volcano.

Venus In Blue Jeans

They say there's seven wonders in the world, but what they say is out of date.

Theres no more seven wonders in the world, I just met number eight!

With thanks to Jimmy Clanton, never was a truer word rhymed in song. A wonderful shot from our outing today, Melissa is sat in a seat made for two, in the lounge on Ga'l Volcano Mountain Top. A pose that offers a sweet invitation, and I took it up in very quick time. Wouldn't you?

I am so used to seeing Melissa look fantastic in a dress or skirt, be it of a classical or modern cut, that it fair took my breath away to see her look so gorgeous in 'ordinary' clothes. Nothing could look ordinary on Melissa - a veritable walking, talking work of art, no wonder she's the girl who has stole my heart!

View From A (Rope) Bridge

This shot is taken from a rope bridge high above the caldera of a volcano (dormant I hope, especially for the sake of the folks in those shelters!).You teleport in onto the platform to the left. I went exploring this area with Melissa today (her idea, she is the adventurous one!), and when we arrived it was coming on to dusk. For this shot I forced it to sunrise, both to get a better picture and to avoid tumbling over the edge in the dark!

Above us was a casino (as ever - if you find a beauty spot on the Grid, there's sure to be a casino around somewhere!), and the structure in the distance was an artists lounge of sorts, complete with drawing board and doodle HUD. More of that later. For sheer natural beauty and wonder, this place is definitely worth a visit, but the natural beauty and wonder will surely be diminished if you don't have a Melissa with you!

SLingo At The Play Pen

Money is an interesting concept in Second Life. Whilst the RL to Grid exchange rate is fantastic (about L$2700 for $10), it could be seen as cheating to keep topping up your balance with real money. Much more challenging is trying to see if you can make money in SL itself. You start the game with a gratis L$250 to get you up and running, and whilst there are many nice freebies to be had, the really desirable items such as body parts, flexi hair and good threads can be expensive. Here on the Grid as anywhere, you get what you pay for.

If you happen to be an ace builder or scripter, you can make money easily by providing clothes, houses, landscapes or animations for the ever-growing number of residents, many of whom can't build or script. Naturally, I fall into the second category, and very grateful I am for those who are in the first!

Pocket money can be made through the use of money trees, money chairs and dance pads. You might make $30L in an hour this way. However, for bigger prizes, there are several cash games on offer, one of the more popular being SLingo.

This is the Grid incarnation of Bingo, and plays just the same. You have a card of numbers in a 5 by 5 grid, and tick them off against a randomly generated group of 5. You get a new group of 5 every round, and there are typically 20 rounds to a game. The winner gets the communal pot, minus a take for the house. Some of the numbers on your card are shaded in a pattern, which will give you bonus points. Indeed you win a game by scoring points, rather than being first to get a full house. There are some other wrinkles to this game, but if you want to know more, get on the Grid and play it for yourself!

The SLingo game pictured is running at Ice Dragon's Play Pen, and is one of the most popular places to play. The host of the session was Rienna Golding, who like all of the hosts here keeps the games flowing, and whips the players into a veritable SLingo frenzy! Just like real world Bingo, SLingo is a social affair, a chance to meet some great characters and make good friends, as well as win it big time.

Shadow Brook

As a horticulturalist, and someone who in RL is responsible for the upkeep of public open spaces, landscapes and gardens have a particular interest for me. The Grid offers residents the chance to enjoy landscapes from around the globe, all in one place. There are parklands reminiscent of England and other parts of the Old World, others that evoke the Orient, and yet others that speak of places that exist only in our minds eye.

One such garden is Shadow Brook, sister creation to Serenity Falls. Here one can walk beside a river (water plays a big part in the experience of SL, not merely because it is made up of islands dotted around a single continent. The sight and sound of moving water stimulates certain parts of the brain, and allows our imagination to fill in the gaps left when certain other senses have no access to the experience of the moment), beneath trees dressed in their autumnal finery, to sit on benchs or in arbors of many varied, yet all beautiful, design. The creators of this sim have gone to great lengths to produce a complete experience, including not only the sounds of nature and delightful background music, but even to the extent of having different seating areas experience time at different speeds. Where but in Second Life could you spend a night, from sunset through moonrise to the glow of a new day's dawning, all in the space of a single hour real time?

This is a place best seen with a close friend or loved one (Hi, Melissa!), as the very air here seems imbued with romance. Visit this place and emerge refreshed, having experienced a closeness to another human being all too rarely found in our modern lives.

The Ivory Tower

Architecture in SL is limited only by the builder's imagination, and this place is no exception. Again, the picture does not do it justice. This is the Ivory Tower, home of the Ivory Tower Library of Primitives.

Library of Primitives? Some strange collection of Stone Age peoples? No, but there may well be such a place somewhere in Second Life! A primitive is the basic building block in SL. The tower you see before you is constructed of 'prims', as is everything on the Grid. Clothes, houses, trees, flowers, all are made of prims. These then live in 'sims', such as the island that the Ivory Tower is on. A sim as far as I understand it, is the environment where one interacts with the prims. Simple, isn't it?

The ITLP is a self-paced study centre in the arts of building, SL-wise. I have just started on the first modules of the self-instruction course, which is perfect for anyone who can't make the numerous workshops that organisations like NCI run for new residents. After a few lessons here, I hope to have something to show you all!

Second Life Library 2.0

I took a visit to the Second Life Library today. Here you see me sat in the foyer of the Main Building. Big, isn't it!

The Second Life Library 2.0(no I don't know why it's 2.0, I must ask) is one of the worthier projects in SL. The Main Building houses the Library of Congress, and there is also a Medical Library, an E-book Centre, a haunted Gothic Mansion, and an Open Air Stage. This will be hosting the Grand Opening of the Library on October 12th through to the 14th, with the Initial Ribbon Cutting being held from 4pm SLT on the 12th.

I was given details on what the library is hoping to host by one of their librarians, Evie Mikazuki. There will be - indeed there already are - book discussions, chances to meet RL authors, workshops, and many other events. Ms Mikazuki has her own blog, listed in my Links section, The UnLibrarian. She will be on-hand to answer any questions about the library if you pay it a visit - and I heartily recommend you do. If not Ms Mikazuki, then one of the other equally personable Librarians will be on duty. And check out the giant chess and draughts boards in the Welcome Area!

Melissa, my Greek Goddess!

I said there would be more pictures of Melissa! Here she is modelling an outfit from Dazzle, which sadly has ceased trading now - but Melissa did rather well at their closing down sale! This was taken, appropriately enough, in the Gardens of Apollo.

Melissa looks very demure here, and indeed she is a very demure woman. I think this outfit must have been made for her, the way it goes perfectly with her hair, and her stunning figure. Which Greek goddess? Athena of course, Goddess of Wisdom - indeed there is no other she could be, as Melissa is the most wise and intelligent person I know. Besides, Aphrodite was a bimbo, and Melissa certainly isn't one of those!

When I can afford my own piece of land in SL, I shall build a temple to the Goddess of Wisdom and Beauty, Melissa Yeuxdoux. Worship sessions to be held several times a day!