Damanios Thetan, Clean Beauty in Second Life

 

Elonia

I feel like I've spent a lot of time in dark places lately.  Moody futuristic or historical themes, grunge, cyber or even post-apocalyptic locations are a lot of fun but every now and then I need light.  When I think of light I think of Damanios Thetan.  He's been in Second Life for more than 7 years now and I've been a big fan from the first time I saw one of his builds.

Elonia

For most of the time he's been on the grid he's worked from his home sim Damani where you'll find his shops and gadgets and many pieces of his art.  He has been working on a newer sim next door for a while now.  Elonia has all of the things I enjoy about his builds; the textures, the clean lines, the views.  It's very very hard to take a bad picture of his designs and some really good photographers create art when they visit.  (note that both of these sims are Moderate on the maturity scale)

Elonia

It's still winter on Elonia and it's gorgeous.  If you feel the need for exercise you can go skating but I was content to wander around and admire the work (when I wasn't thinking that it's really time to start building again myself).

Damani

One of the really cool things about Damani's work is that, if you like to play with Windlight for your photographs, the textures allow you to create wonderful affects by changing the sky and atmosphere.  If you need a place to practice with those buttons this is a terrific option.  Even if you're addicted to post-apocolytic environments, I still think you should go visit these sims and get a different perspective on inworld design.  Think of it as a vacation.  :)

Elonia

On a personal blog note, I'm finally starting to play with and figure out the changes to Blogger's editing tools.  So forgive me if things seem to change erratically.  I'll try not to go crazy.:)

Nostalgia & Ankh Morpork in Second Life

I don't think I can fully explain or describe just how good today has been. But I'll try. :) It started when I was randomly clicking islands on the map and I found myself on Time and Space. (Moderate maturity rating) There didn't seem to be a lot there but I noticed a tree which looked familiar. And then some flowers and other trees. They were from my Second Life youth.

Now I'm a big fan of Lalo Telling's Seconderth series, the one that documents the early years of Second Life. The objects that looked familiar to me on this sim made me feel all nostalgic and even a little emotional. Things move so fast on the grid that we forget what it was like when we started out and, even though I'm not that old, the world looks very different than it did when I was first exploring and learning to build. There are flowers from 2004, trees from 2008 and lots of bits and pieces that would be considered "antique" if they were in a museum. But they're not, they're in use and available for all of us to experience and they made me feel "homesick" for my early days.

Janeel Kharg is the owner and designer of the island and is a delightful woman. I tried to convey my pleasure at the "old school" objects and at the same time hoped she understood I wasn't being insulting because I loved it. Janeel explained that she doesn't change things just for the sake of change. She has many repeat visitors and they like the comfort of the familiar.

The two of us are very close to the same age in Second Life and I can remember the "eureka" moment when I realized I could build something in here and it would form part of this world. We have something else in common as well. For many years I was diagnosed with multiple chronic illnesses, primarily fibromyalga. I spent more than ten years walking with a cane, when I could walk, and dealing with pain and fatigue that made me think I must have been very bad in a previous life. Janeel has to deal with myalgic encephalomyelitis (or CFS) which makes the next part of what I want to tell you even more remarkable.

High above Time and Space Janeel has created an inworld version of Ankh Morpork. Building something like this takes time and energy and passion. She's done a fantastic job and I'm in love.

Terry Pratchett's DiscWorld series is phenomenal and those of us who live this world through his books know the city state of Ankh Morpork. We know the river Ankh, which is so full of silt and pollution "even an agnostic could walk across it".

We know the hippos which appear on the city shield and their statues on the bridge. It is said that, should the City be threatened, they will run away.

We know Dibblers' pies and we know enough not to eat them. We are familiar with the guilds and the characters that populate this place. We appreciate the humour and the insight in the books and the mind of the author and we're very protective of his world.

Luckily for us, so is Janeel. She has based the design of the City on the illustrations by Paul Kidby and she has his permission to do so. If you know the books you'll recognize this place when you visit.

After a quick jaw dropping look around the City I went to visit the City Watch House to pay my respects.

The Ankh Morpork build has a hunt set up if you're so inclined. There is also the possibility of role-play and she has provided character information for that purpose. She has also created many character avatars and has a vendor there if you'd like to get a jump start on the play but there are also free outfits just so you'll fit in as you wander the the streets.

I had some trouble deciding which character I would become to begin my journey and finally decided to start at the top of the food chain. Vetinari is one of my favourite people in the books (well, right behind Sam Vimes) and it seemed to me that somebody should inhabit his palace and take care of business for him.

So, I assumed his form and walked with confidence up to the front door.

I forgot that he can be a little touchy about things sometimes. The good news is that I managed to learn a lot of his tricks and secrets over the years so they only thought they had me.

I'll be back. Frequently. And I'll start my next visit in the Assassins' Guild - it worked for the Patrician and I'm betting I can make it work for me.

If you know this world of Terry Prachett go visit Janeel's Ankh Morpork. If you don't know this world - start reading the books. One of my goals this year was to reread all of them in order. Now I have a place on the grid to visit while I do.

A Potpourri of Places in Second Life

I really really needed to clean up some of the mess on my desk and that includes removing some of the myriad of yellow stickies with names of sims I want to visit. So here are a few of the places on my itinerary - I'm hoping at least one or two will appeal to you (all are Moderate on the maturing rating). I enjoyed visiting them all. :)

The first is Dark Kingdom Island - for role players and visitors (wear your visitor tag to look around). If your italian is better than mine you'll understand much more than I did but even I could understand that the top photo is of a tournament site that involves swords. There are non combat areas within the build, just choose wisely when you use the teleporter. The keywords used to describe this site are intriguing: Italia, GDR, Gioco di Ruolo, RPG, Role Play Game, Combat, Italian Language, Fantasy, Viaggi nel tempo, Gotico, Fantascienza, Horror, Camelot, Magia, Globe Theatre, William Shakespeare, DCS, Armeria di Gatta Demonia, Omaggio a Estasi Allen e Marc Jarman.

Majilis al Jinn or The Sands of Time is an " island of worn ancient cliffs sheltering a garden of wonders; Lost for countless ages in the midst of a vast ocean, home to Jinn, Elves and gentle spirits." There is a wonderful tunnel inside the build that has accumulated sand through its history and the exit onto the beach makes you feel like you've discovered a new world. This is a very cool place - even if you're not looking for a romantic escape.

In keeping with my recent tendency to visit cyber cities - I recommend you check out Shadowrun - Seattle - Galactic Aeon. This is another role play sim but you can get an observer tag and wander around before having to decide whether or not to get involved. It might help if you're familiar with Shadowrun but if not they have lots of information available to you.

My 4th visit today was to Gobelin & Sendora. Take the teleporter to Paradise Island and then decide where you want to start. If you've been having withdrawal issues from the movie Avatar - and even if you haven't, this is a great build and a terrific place to hide from the rest of every world for a while.

Finally I think we could all use more magic. I plan to try and accumulate magical powers to fend off all of the various military style role players who recognize me for the easy target I am. If you want to explore that side of the grid, go visit the Arcanum. A great looking store and sim that will make you think anything is possible. :)

Discover ImagiLearning in Second Life

ImagiLearning Lowlands

I have all of these places I want to go explore in Second Life. Yellow stickies with the names of sims decorate my desk and monitor but I'm easily distracted by shiny things. The most recent was this photo I saw earlier today. The woman and the picture are both beautiful but what caught my eye was the build in the background. It sent me to ImagiLearning Lowlands.

ImagiLearning Lowlands

ImagiLearning is an organization run by Virtual Bacon and, unless the map is lying to me, there are now 7 islands in the group. Given all the brouhaha about the future of education on the grid I think it's worth reading his blog post on Why he's still in Second Life. I'm not an expert on education or its uses inworld but I do benefit often from the educators who are there and I really appreciate great builds. So, I have to recommend you go visit - you may find a learning environment or opportunity that appeals but you will definitely find some tremendous examples of sim design that are well worth exploring.

ImagiLearning Island

Some of the objects and design have been done by Virtual Bacon and some bits and pieces I saw had other creators named. The two largest designs were by Abel Dreamscape, owner of Morphe Inc. who did the medieval village on the home island and Baal Zobel who has done the ImagiLearning Highlands and Lowlands. I've admired the work of both of these designers before and this visit just proved to me that I have really good taste. insert self-deprecating cough here

ImagiLearning NW

It will take you quite a while to explore everything on the 7 sims - I'd encourage a little caution, there appear to be a couple of private homes on one of them. All of the islands are rated General on the maturity rating scale except for NW, the Reef and East, which are rated Moderate.

When you get to the Highlands, and make sure you do, spend some time in the Library which will give you information on Tranceformational Learning and the ImagiLearning programs. It's fascinating stuff. :)

ImagiLearning Highlands

Sick Cyber City in Second Life

I had heard that the Science Innovation Company has created a thriving corporate town (Moderate maturity rating) to benefit its thousands of employees and their families. Of course I had to go visit.

Imagine you teleport to a new location on a fine spring evening. As things come into focus you notice beautiful cherry trees and the dance of blossoms in a gentle breeze. You can hear the hum of distant traffic and a nearby clanking that might indicate that a resident is emptying a garbage bin. They don't do roadwork at this hour of the day surely.

Then the surroundings become clear. The distant traffic is the hum of an approaching military type vehicle and the clanking is a very strange and evil looking mechanical being shooting at everything in its path gulp.

I don't know what you'd do but I very quickly changed into something more appropriate for the situation.

I managed to negotiate my way around the machine with the happy trigger finger and started to try and find some explanations. It would appear that the citizens of this town left in a hurry. Card games are abandoned and nobody took their chips with them. The corporate headquarters building is eerily empty and the SIC's armoured vehicles are left running without drivers or passengers. I get the feeling that, whatever the company was working on, something went wrong.

The apparently thriving downtown core looks like it's just waiting for everybody to come back. At least it does until you turn the corner and find this 30m tall tin can with an attitude problem.

I'm thinking this is a good example of what happens when you let the techies take charge. If a few more people with Arts degrees were responsible for making policy you wouldn't have these problems.

Philosophy aside, there is a serious situation here and somebody has to fix it. As Shakespeare once said "There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune". Or in today's vernacular, "No guts, no glory". I decided to at least try and formulated my plans while I looked for the key to this puppy.

I probably should have read the manual first. sigh However, all is not lost. Sick is in trouble but I've retreated to Sick2 (which seems to have more toxic waste but fewer armed machines) to recover and make new plans. I have no intention of allowing some piece of metal with poor socialization skills to defeat me.

The really good news is that the medical facilities are state of the art. Well sort of.

The Wonderous Epic Toy Factory in Second Life

I rarely speak about this but I was once severely traumatized in a physical world toy store. It's a very well known store and my sister insisted I find something for her daughter in the aisle devoted to a specific doll. shudder I still have nightmares about all that pink!

So it seems perhaps a little odd that I've acquired a fondness for toy stores in Second Life. I've mentioned one of my favourites before - The Mechanical Toy Factory in the Forgotten City (General maturity rating) - and today I'd like to suggest you explore Epic Toys (Moderate maturity rating) which has sprung from the mind and talent of Mayah Parx.

Mayah is a well known artist with a quirky sense of humour and her Toy Factory displays all of the attributes of her work that we've come to love. The builds are "inspired by Alice in Wonderland, The Chocolate Factory, The Wishing Chair, Grim Brothers Tales Fae Elven. The weird. The wonderful. From mushrooms to homes, to shop fronts, themes of Steampunk, Fantasy Magical & Mythical."

This is a store which means you can not only explore and enjoy but also, should you feel inclined, take part of the magic home with you.

I know the photographs are dark but the sim is not designed for those of us using our cameras. :) However, it is designed extremely well for us to journey through a vision of "play" that delights.

Take your time to look at everything there on the main landing area. Then use the teleporter to visit all of the various sites she has created for your wonder and amusement. As much as I love steampunk and post-apocalyptic builds this is a wonderful counterpoint. I suggest you take a break and enjoy some not-so-childish wonder. A little fantasy is good for the soul.

Wastelands Beauty in Second Life

The Wastelands

I've been thinking lately about all of the great places in Second Life I haven't visited in a long time and that led me to revisit the Wastelands (Moderate maturity rating). There have been a lot of changes here in the time I've been busy elsewhere. For one thing, there are 12 sims in the group and I'm sure it wasn't that big before.

Cormac

This post apocalyptic marvel opened first in January (I think) of 2007 which would make it 1,392 years old in SL time (it's like dog years but with lag). This is one of those destinations everybody should experience and it's one of the ones we take for granted. It's more than possible that newcomers won't know about it and so I think you should keep it in mind when showing people around.

Malady Bog

I'm not sure why we're so fond of post apocalyptic landscapes on the grid. That and/or steampunk is certainly a theme we see fairly often and I'm not complaining. There might be metaphysical or psychological reasons - perhaps it's because it's possible to explore the ideas and "live" them. Or it might just be because there's a wonderful stark beauty to be shared. Whatever the reason you really should go experience the "grand-daddy" of them all.

The Great Fissure

There is some role play here and there are local weapons to be had (outside weapons are not allowed) but nobody tried to kill me and so I think you're safe. There is a fair amount of shopping in the old ruins and don't forget that many people have homes here so please, be respectful. It is a wonderful place to explore and it deserves repeat visits.

Fort Stygian