May 30, 2009

I visited the Sunshine Therapy Garden (again). I see they have added new things, expanded the space. There is a Virgin Mary shrine/ open air church. Also there is a magic carpet that takes two people up into a galaxy ball (very nice) for some cozy time. The rotating galaxy was very cool.

I was going through some old landmarks. I landed at one that the art gallery was no longer there. However, I noticed an interesting build close by. The builder, DB Bailey, happened to be there. He was very friendly and invited me on. I found out he was a RL architect and he showed me a RL architectural project he was doing (model in SL) up in the air. It was a GORGEOUS mall --I should find out where it is going to be and visit it in the RL. Anyway, SL is the best with these kinds of moments, to see the creators and the creations. Also you can see another great idea about RL to SL.

At noon I went and watched half-pipe simboarding. Okay, I'm addicted. The peeps were very welcoming (VSN, or Nexus Sports).

I also found out the Galaxy cruise ship just opened a Medical Center. While diagnosis and treatments are of course not possible, it is still being staffed by real medical personnel and is to be used as a resource (not merely roleplay).

I am at an anniversary party for a restaurant that as been around for 2 years -- that is quite healthy in SL terms. It is called the Arbor.

I also stopped by to get a peek at a Japanese performance to celebrate the opening of a new India themed sim.

May 29, 2009 Friday

I toured New Orleans this morning. It was quiet, which I enjoyed. Although I wish I had a companion for these tours. Someday. I landed in the church yard and went through the church. At the moment I'm sitting at a seaside coffee shop. The town is non-residential, all commercial spaces. Not too large, which means just the right size. I might like it as a second spot for my shop. There was a trolley (not able to ride) and the HUD said there was a steamship, but it was missing when I looked for it. Chatted a bit with a person there, he found out and told me that the trolley was 96 prims. Wah!

Next I hopped over to Raglan Shire for their Artwalk that they've been having for a while.

I've been taking a look at the May 2009 issue of the SL home and garden magazine, Prim Perfect. I saw advertised a gigantic, luxurious and residential!!! cruise ship -- the Galaxy in Sagittaria. I have added this to my wish list of where I want to live. It's midnight on the ship now. There is more to Sagittaria's (multi)sim besides the ship. It will take me more than one visit to explore. There is first class sights and service here. The pool area has a waterslide. I found the dance floor and danced with peeps for a while and got a group tag.

By the way, at the moment, I have an apartment at Sunset View Apartments in Adam ondi Ahman. My next home purchase will be somewhere in Al-Andalus. But I think I just put the Galaxy Ship at number 3.

Later in the evening I stopped by GOHA to watch hockey -- people were just practicing for the moment, scrimmaging. They do hold games.

I watched the dress rehearsal of a drama group. They were doing several scenes from a few Shakespeare plays -- Caeser, Midsummer's Night Dream.

Late at night, starting at the Warmouth Infohub, I did some biking on the mainland routes. They are empty, not eerie, but so empty and strange. But the terrain is beautiful. I want to become familiar with the mainland and the other continents. Warmouth is on the far side (east? I don't know) of Sarasa (the first continent).

May 28, 2009 Thursday

I started off this morning by practicing with my Winamp and my DJing skills at Runningbears. It's quiet in the morning. I was both heartened and discouraged. I was glad I even was able to log onto the stream. But my Winamp skips and fails easily and my mic has to be switched in a weird way, plus it's hard to keep looking on the SL viewer. So I'm not sure what I'll do.

I walked around Kijiji. They advertised as having an "art expo" in Events. It is by the sea (as most of SL is), and there were bumper boats you could rez. Also there were a couple of lions wandering around the cobblestone streets. I recall being here before, actually.

I stopped by The Grand Planetarium at the Ginsbert Art Center.

I decided today to look into some more roleplay sims. I checked out Kingdom of Sand. It was mostly about being prey or predator (sexual). A little too much for me, although the Arabian setting was gorgeous. Obscure Reality was black and white, alternate urban reality. I think that one will be cool. I hope to do it. I want to be an Angel (one of the races). The only thing is I will need to turn a new leaf and carry a gun. I think I am ready to do it. I don't know if I will like that change in me. Nevertheless. There was Incorrigible, which is sort of a decadent medieveal Goth, yet not dark, just -- indulgent and fierce. I dunno. I may do it, depending on how the actual people are in it. I did spend time on Thassa Island where I already have been developing my roleplay. I wrote some of the story line for it. Now if I can just get anyone to play it with me.

I wrote a notecard to Rose at Al-Andalus with my idea of how to connect with some university sims. We'll see what she and the other citizens say. I really would like to get more involved with Al-Andalus, so I guess now I will. I am going to have to lay all these things back down again when school starts. Maybe not. We'll see.

May 27, 2009 Wednesday

A day or so ago I created a second avatar. The main reason I did this was to have more groups. But it was interesting to go through the initial process again which had changed since I went through. I entered Second Life at a welcome community. That was only an option, so I don't know what would have happened if I hadn't chosen a welcome community. But I started out at D.C. District Community. It was a very nice place. The learning was very clear and simple. I have ended up meeting some people and answering a lot of questions myself. D.C. District is actually a huge mall with tweaks. But newbies enter at a special area with the learning information. It is a lot better than ending up at an infohub, that's for sure. But maybe if you don't choose a welcome community, you get an infohub. I don't know. The only drawback to being at D.C. District is that it is self-contained, so after you go through the learning and explore the entire mall (which takes some time), there is no further sense of where to go, unless people realize that they can use the Search. Which is good. There was another half a sim near the mall, with some cool buildings, but a lot of them were banned space. Which makes sense if you are near a place with a lot of newbies. Anyway.

I attended the Al-Andalus citizens meeting. I gave them my RL to SL update, and listened as others started planning to host a Middle Earth party or event. Awesome.

I re-worked the wording on my Profile.

I decided to go ahead and get into another Gridhunt. This one is called Discovery.

I should say that I don't post every little detail of what I do in this blog (of course). I try. But I meet people, do details of my business, dance a little here and there. Ha ha. No one could keep up.

Today was a Health Expo at Health Commons. I stopped by.

May 25, 2009 Monday

I started off the day by doing some tasks for my shop (business). My shop landlords (and they are my friends, too -- the Runningbears) are expanding and re-doin their mall, so it is exciting times. So I talked a bit with Steven about some ins and outs of stuff. I took pictures of my avatar in my new "unofficial" Runningbear bikinis that are my new creations and products, and got them set up as sales posters and got them on my shop walls. It was nice that Steven came and sat on my new comfy chair in the shop to watch me a bit. By the way just this week I found out that these "sales posters" are called vendors. I've got some pre-made vendors in my Inventory I want to take a look at now.

Danced on the beach at Runningbears, of course. Dj wawa.

May 22, 2008 Friday

This afternoon I showed up at the Bay City Airport Grand Opening. They have a nice little place. I even got myself a free parachute that I am looking forward to trying the next time I'm falling from great air heights. Apparently it was also the 1 year anniversary of the Bay City Police Department, so I stopped by there too. It wasn't overly exciting, but I did listen to a few moments of a machina interview of a RL cop who did some RL Hell's Angels under cover work. You'll be hearing more about Bay City from me in the future.

There are two gridhunts (that I am aware of) starting on June 1, so I got a little information on them. One is called "Bedtime Treasures" and the other is "Fun in the Sun".

May 18, 2009 Monday

Each morning I am and have been working on what I call a Real Life to Second Life project. I am volunteering my time and my know-how for a Real Life organization that I believe in to have a Second Life platform. I'm not going to say much about this until it gets much farther along, but I do spend a lot of time on it.

When I log back in to Second Life in the afternoon, it's "me" time. Ha ha.

I asked my friend to come help me test out some technicalities of sales posters in my shop. But then we got to talking and just chatted at the shop, my apartment, and then we went and listened to a piano musician at the Greek Harbor's Theatre in the Clouds. We ended up exploring all over the CDS sim (democratic sims) into Rome and Bavaria and so forth. We followed a huge, long waterfall way up into the mountains. It was an awesome time.

May 17, 2009 Sunday

This afternoon I started out at War Child Canada's center. They have a lovely formal ballroom, but today we are out on the grass on big, puffy pillows listening to the live artist (singer-guitar player MarcusAurelius Merlin). He just finished a fine acoustic version of "Stairway to Heaven". For every minute a body is on a pillow, then sponsors donate to the cause, which is to help free children from having to live a life of being a child-soldier, or rescue those who already have had to be.

Since it's a Sunday, I like to take it a little easier and I don't do work projects. So I love the relaxed feeling I get.

I got a notice for a live musician at a mall, so I thought, What the heck. I'll go check it out. I'm not completely lindenless, but I am trying to conserve for my two rents (my apartment and my shop). It's not shopping money. But you never know, people come up with cute architecture and things like this that are fun to see. So I'm listening to a female crooning love ballads. The mall is called Grafton's, and it's meant to be a little upper class. They do have a large dance floor in the center. Always nice. I also liked the dolphin pool, and that there was a couples hand-in-hand pose ball for walking around the mall, window shopping.

I did the Beach Babe thing at Runningbears for a while, of course.

I looked on Showcase for a tour to go on, and ended up at Wikitechture. The parcel was only so-so thus far as far as "cool looks", but it their real life idea -- which they explain on large boards with photos -- about collaborative archictural design seems great. And it is just one more example of Real Life to Second Life. I wandered around the whole park (sim), too, it was themed on real life architecture. Some nice business and design and and education and consciousness ideas.

Later, I spent time at the AofA Sunday Social.

Then listened to Niles Compton singing live. I try never to miss him if I know he's playing. This evening was at The Gaslight. He does mostly country, but he gets in some of my other favorites, like Snow Patrol's "Run".