Space - A Planetarium

Being, as we are, in the midst of the annual Perseid meteor showers in first life, the night sky is more fascinating than usual to me right now. So I was delighted to discover that only one sim away from the site I blogged most recently, The Unknown Theme Park, is a place called "Space - A Planetarium," owned by Hazelee Haller. Located alongside the Second Life Railroad (SLRR) tracks in Euclida, it is one of the most creative uses of a 512 sqm parcel I've ever seen. 

What's the significance of a 512, you might ask? Those of you who are premium members will know that one perk of membership is either ownership of a Linden home, or, for those of us who own Mainland, the option of being granted a 512 sqm bonus before land use fees are applied. Either option comes with an allowance of 117 prims, although if you chose to own a Linden home, the house that comes with your home does not count against the prim allowance. Used as a stand-alone parcel on the Mainland, 512 sqm is really rather tiny, although you can find homes that size on the marketplace, and the advent of mesh has made the 117 prim allowance quite workable. However, most people who don't take the Linden home option either roll the bonus into their land fees, or put up a skybox or building platform above ground level. 

The ringed globe, pictured above, is one such skybox, but it is much more creative than a simple building platform. When you arrive at the planetarium on ground level (making sure not to get hit by a passing SLRR train on your way in) look around at the tiny but elegant build and admire the sculptures there. (I'm especially fond of "Life Cycles", by Elie Giulia.) Then, follow the footsteps and teleport to the globe high above. Inside the globe, you'll find what Hazelee calls a "stylized view of our galaxy", pictured below.

Level One includes a static display of planets and their moons, and touching each object will open a link to a web page with more information. Level Two shows the planetary orbital of Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars around the sun. Following the footsteps through the skybox wall at the base of the ramp between the levels will lead you to the ring outside. This ring can be walked, though the spinning motion might make you a bit dizzy, and I did fall off when trying to re-enter the globe. 

Hazelee commented, "I have had the Planetarium since 2007. I put it up for sale a couple of years ago, with the stipulation that it remain as is. Finding no buyers who would promise me that, I took it off the market and am glad no one took me up on the offer!" All in all, this is a fun find, and one of many hidden gems along the SLRR route in Heterocera. If you enjoyed your visit, there is a tip jar located within the sky globe.

The Unknown Theme Park

According to the current owner, Miyi (Miyi Nishi), the exact beginning of The Unknown Theme Park is not documented, and its founder, Ade Franklin, left Second Life a while back. What is known is that the theme park started with a club, The Unknown Club, which has been at the same location since November 26, 2005. Located along Route 1 in the sims of Moneta and Rivula in the north of Heterocera, the theme park comprises 37000 sqm packed with more than 50 colorful and exciting rides and activities. Miyi remarked that when visiting, "ear plugs and high-class lag protection suits are recommended."

Miyi recalled meeting Ade for the first time, commenting, "we always had a lot of fun at his always-changing park. When my SL family fell apart, Ade took us kids into his family. Imagine a dream come true: living in the middle of an always-open theme park as a kid, where all the rides are free! From that day on all the rides had to be 'Miyi approved'. If me could operate them, they were good for the customers. Me became Theme Park Guide." As the years went on, and Ade spent less and less time in SL, Miyi took on more responsibility for the park, buying the parcels of park land which were not already group-owned, and replacing broken rides. "With a last visit of Ade," she said, "and the big help of a neighbor resident, plus Linden support, the park could be transfered and saved. Now me runs it until Ade comes back. It is so much fun to work at and on the park!"

Additionally, after many years of inactivity, The Unknown Club (pictured below) now is active again with regular events, the next ones being "30 Greatest Hard Rock Songs" on August 10th and "Lynyrd Skynyrd & ZZ Top" on August 24. There is a group joiner in the club and several others throughout the theme park for those wishing to keep informed of such happenings. 

The Unknown Theme Park is in the middle of a year-long 10th Anniversary celebration - quite an accomplishment in our ever-changing world! Stop on by to enjoy the sights and sounds of a classic theme park, and try out the many rides, which include a tour train, underground bumper cars, a maze, a bouncy castle (pictured below), several roller coasters, and a giant ferris wheel. Play some classic arcade games in the mini arcade or play chess on a giant chess board. The land extends down to the inner waters of the Atoll, so visitors can also enjoy fishing or inner tubing. A balloon tour near the club provides some history of the park as you ride. Remarks Miyi, "All rides are free, with a money back guarantee if you are not satisfied. ;) The Unknown Theme Park is here for fun and for you to have fun. And it is here to stay. :)"

Gerstle Point

It isn't often that you stumble across an entire Mainland sim that is constructed and landscaped as a cohesive whole, but while I was exploring Jessie the other day, that's exactly what Ziki found. Gerstle Point comprises all of the sim Gerstle, and is located on the shore of the Bay of Space Pigs on the old continent of Sansara. Beautifully landscaped with high cliffs, rocky shorelines, forested areas, and a mysterious, mist-covered stone circle, Gerstle Point is a peaceful and delightful respite in the center of some of the oldest land in Second Life. Let's stop by and take a look, shall we?

I spoke to sim owner Катя Коваль (KatyaKoval), pictured below, who recently purchased the area from two friends who had owned it since 2004. "I am trying to build up two spots," she told me, "the storytelling/glamping area in the corner and the discussion ruins." The ruins she refers to are the stones, pictured above, which are the setting for a weekly discussion group. Upon arrival, a notecard gives you some information, "Welcome to the ruins. Here we have a chat meet up every Wednesday night at 4pm slt. Depending on the interest we will look into further expanding the dates, times and locations." Katya continued by saying that "the western side of the sim is going to be more modern age and the eastern, a more ancient English leaning. I wanted a place for the arts. I love my artist friends and I still hope to create an artist colony at some point."

Wandering around, in addition to the discussion ruins, you'll discover a creatively-furnished lighthouse with a 7seas fishing vendor outside, what Katya called the "Glamping corner" - five glamorous tents and a fire circle tucked into a heavily wooded corner between the cliffs and the sea, four dockside glamping tents located on rafts over the water, a lovely English cottage (pictured below), a pool and pool-house, and the forlorn remnants of a fallen lighthouse (last photo, below). If you look at the sim from overhead via the inworld map, you will see a picture of a lighthouse, created by the delightful (and apparently omnipresent!) Marianne McCann. 

Katya concluded, "This land in SL has always had a special meaning to me over the years, and I hope that folks join in because I really enjoy seeing things grow, especially when they involve resident creativity such as storytelling, and participation with the discussion group area.  I try to to welcome all thoughts and at the same time be a welcoming place that allows folks who need a shoulder to find respite, in a place that is a comfortable place to be for awhile. The area itself is in a spot that is more generally oldbie residents so we tend to be more open about personal RL selves at times when making personal connections. We will eventually have boat slips available for rent in the future, as well as now having areas to fish if you are into 7seas fishing. Also starting soon will be campfire storytelling in the glamping corner, leading into November's NaNoWriMo.  This will be by invite only, but if you are interested in participating, please definitely IM me. There will be limited spots available so be sure to do it soon!"

"This Is Why We Fight"

In the early days of Second Life, there existed a group of four damage-enabled sims designated as "The Outlands": Stanford, Federal, Hawthorne and Shipley. Half of the sim Clyde was part of the Outlands as well, and contained a wall (the remains of which are pictured below) separating this virtual Wild West from the rest of the world. Later, due to increased demand for this type of area, the sim Jessie was added, set as combat-enabled, and opened for public purchase. Today, of those five sims, only Jessie remains as a damage-enabled war zone. It is Jessie which we will explore today, so put on your combat boots, prepare for occasional death during our explorations, and follow me over the wall!

As do many of the oldest sims on the grid, Jessie allows for 40/40 terraforming, so you will find high cliffs throughout the area, dividing parcels from each other and forming natural defensive structures. The whole thing seems a bit jumbled, and not at all like the cohesive town I'd been told it once resembled. Having heard about the "Jessie Wars", I looked through the forum archives to try to decipher what happened, but the accounts, while entertaining, were confusing to follow. So I contacted a current resident of Jessie, Kenny Avalanche, to try and get a better picture of things.

According to Randy Farmer in a 2007 post on his blog Habitat Chronicles, "During the Second Life beta test, its initial culture was starting to emerge. In my experience, worlds like this one attract early adopters of a somewhat democratic-libertarian bent — "Let's just all get along" and "Leave Real Life rules behind" often reflect the mentality of the most vocal users. But, something unusual happened this time — another virtual world, called World War II Online, was failing and its 1940s role-playing refugees migrated to Second Life, en masse. Since it provided for personal combat (hit points), death (teleport you home), and you could build just about anything, including weapons, it seemed like an ideal fit. Quickly they'd built up WWII cultural and military items, including Nazi uniforms, gear and propaganda, including flags and posters with Swastikas and the like. Eventually they took over the only remaining full-combat enabled simulator [patch of land], named Jessie, and made it their home."

About the WWII group, Kenny recalled, "They came here for combat. They said they were promised a place where they could build and create what they wanted, but what they found was a group of residents who were now against combat. Land was pretty scarce at that time (see the map of the world at that time period, below), and people had started building houses in the combat zone. In order to try to force the WWII group out, some local residents started using RL issues (this was at the time of the Iraq War) to force people to move. People put up posters of Bush and Saddam, and also Confederate flags, all over the Jessie wall. It got pretty ugly."
 

And at that point, the Lindens stepped in. They set the Jessie wall to "no build" and removed everything on it. According to the Jessie wikia, "The Jessie wall was almost completely destroyed at this point; it was damaged after a large conflict over the war in Iraq, when many posters/boxes were placed over it. Linden staff, while removing these objects, also deleted a large portion of the wall, leaving only a small section in the Northwest portion of Jessie." As an aside, both the wall and the "Entering The Outlands" sign on it are copy, so if you want to take a bit of SL history home with you, here's your chance.

When asked about the land now, Kenny commented, "The residents of Jessie tried to stick together, but some sold the land and it will never be the same. Combat was the goal of the sim, but just like RL, most people don't like war. Some of those who wanted a combat area moved to a private sim and called it New Jessie. I try to keep my land true to the idea of Jessie but others just live here. Only a few still use Her as Home."

Kenny concluded by saying, "I still think Jessie is a must see. It definitely is a huge part of the history of SL. It is the only entire sim on the mainland with damage enabled. You can see your little heart at the top of your screen when you are on Jessie. The heart is your health meter, and indicates that you can die here still to this day. I think everyone in SL should get killed at least once just for the experience! Good ole Jessie is alive and well, noob-friendly, and definitely worth visiting."

I'll leave you with a song by The Decemberists which seems an appropriate soundtrack for the story of Jessie:

"This is why
Why we fight
Why we lie awake
And this is why
This is why we fight"

The Phoenix - Rising From The Ashes

High above the sim Gurshi on the continent of Satori spins the impressive five-level Phoenix Space Station, pictured below. The station's levels include dance clubs, living and sleeping quarters, and even a hangar with five different rezzable spaceships (second photo, below), each of which can be flown. Similar to those on the LDPW's Mos Ainsley Space Base, about which I wrote here, the spaceships will autoreturn to the station when you stand.

I wandered around the station for a bit, taking the center elevator to explore each level. This would be a great place for a photo shoot, or to host a space-themed party. Unlike at Mos Ainsley, I didn't spot any aliens, so I think partygoers would be safe. ;) Sim owners Sven Homewood and Sauly Saulio (Saul Winkler) mentioned that anyone wishing to host a party on the station can contact either of them for group membership, which includes rezzing rights. After I was finished looking around, I jumped off the station and tumbled the long way down to earth, curious as to what was below.

With rez dates one month apart in 2007, Sven and Saul have owned the land below the space station for over nine years. "I remember we got the land four weeks after I joined," commented Sven (pictured below). "We were the first people here. We didn't know each other then but we talked a lot and then found out that our plans are pretty similar about how things should look and feel." Sven built the space station and the pub; Saul said "I mostly buy and place things around."

According to Saul, The Phoenix Hangout, comprised of two connected parcels spanning about 16k of land, was created because he and Sven "wanted to make a non-commercial place for folks to kick back and hang out, play games and listen to music." He continued, "We call the place The Phoenix because I basically destroyed it once with the click of a button. Everything poofed off the land. Sven was a little miffed. When we (mostly he) rebuilt it, we renamed it The Phoenix, because it was rising from the ashes."

When I asked them what their favorite parts of the land were, Sven mentioned the pub — The Sleeping Dog — which was named after an ancient dog sleeping by the fireplace inside (pictured above, far left). Saul said his favorite part was the fishing pond outside of the pub (pictured above, far right). There is a 7Seas fishing vendor located right next to the pond.

The Phoenix Hangout is filled with places to, well, hang out. There are hobbit houses to explore (pictured behind our mushroom perch, above), playground-type rides, places to rest or snuggle, and games scattered both inside the pub and throughout the grounds. "People come to play the many free games," remarked Saul. "We welcome all types of avatars here: furry, child, petite, whatever. Just no griefers! There are also free to copy items scattered throughout the parcel. We've been tweaking the place for nine years now, and we like how it has developed." Come on by, hang out a bit, or take a ride on a spaceship and tour the surrounding area. If you enjoy your visit, there is a tip jar located just inside the entrance to the pub.

Mainland Really Does Matter, or Why Kinn Has Not Been Blogging

I've not done a lot of blogging this month - first, because I was on vacation in Ireland, and second, because Ziki and I decided we should put our money where my mouth is, and we purchased a very large parcel of Mainland on the Atoll. The photo below, left, shows the parcel at the time of purchase, and right, after the very fabulous Isa Messioptra did a fair amount of landscaping for us. 

The parcel is not quite ready for visitors, mainly because we are still working on decorating the interior of the house and adding details to the land. Below, Ziki can be seen working on the interior decorating in her own, unique way. ;) It has been an awful lot of fun exploring what is in our inventories to find what might work here.

Below, you can see a glimpse of what this place will look like once it is finished. The trio of wooden elephants was a housewarming gift from Cica Ghost, and the only item, besides the house, that we told Isa she had to incorporate into the landscaping. The more time I spend here, the more I love it, and it is already starting to feel like home. Stay tuned for a more complete post once the parcel itself is more complete. We are excited about the opportunity to show everyone that a beautiful and welcoming home is possible on Mainland!

"Hallelujah, I'm A Bum"

On the Western shore of the inner delta of Heterocera is a unique and whimsical place called Lollygagger Lane. Created and administered by Firery Broome, Raskolnikow Roffo, and paramparamm Papp, the Lane is a jumble of different things that work well together: a Hobo Safe Camp, the home of the Hot Stilt Bitches of Burning Life, and a newcomer friendly slum hangout with a lively arts and music scene. I asked Raskolnikow what gave them the idea to start the community, and he replied, "We had a friend with land and we were just playing around. Before we knew it, we had rezzed a couch to be lazy on. The rest is all just stuff that ended up here over time. We always make plans to clean and sweep the street, but we never actually do, so it stays dirty and sandy here."

But I know you are wondering, as I was, what exactly is a Lollygagger? Rask passed me the Lollygagger Manifesto, which states, "According to the dictionary, a lollygagger is a lazy person, one who lollygags; a slacker, ne'er-do-well. We prefer to see ourselves as those who take their time to smell the daisies. And the best way to enjoy life is to smell them together. The word lollygagger was meant to label people, but we wear the name in pride. As we lost our haste, we now see what this world really looks like. And how it might be better. Like a flower growing from the concrete, the Lollygaggers want to show you and everybody in the Metaverse the aspects of humanity that we tend to forget about in the rush of our daily lives."

In the photo above, you can see me wearing a Hot Stilt Bitch costume on the shores of Lollygagger Lane. The Hot Stilt Bitches of Burning Life group was formed by Kilara Balnarring in 2009 for Burn2, the Second Life version of Burning Man. According to Kilara, the group’s goal, besides having lots of fun, is to support the Second Life art scene by spontaneously appearing at events. In addition, the Lane in general is certainly a place that supports the arts in Second Life. Currently, they are hosting a large-scale art show which also happens to include the work of my partner, Ziki Questi (pictured below). Stop by and see the art, which is spread out over several locations, and make sure to grab the free gift from Ziki while you are there. The show ends on July 23rd, so hurry!

In addition to the regular art exhibits, Lollygagger Lane has shops, small shacks for rent, and one large annual music event. "Every year we organise an event called Slumrock," remarked Rask, "and we give all Slumrock tips to a good cause. We have donated to A Liter of Light and to homeless shelters, and more! We also have a camp at Relay for Life called 'Walking Tall For a Cure'. Getting together and working together for a good cause is one of the coolest things in Second Life, we believe. To keep informed it is handy to become a member of the Lollygagger group, since we indeed use notices to inform and invite everyone."

From the Lollygagger Manifesto, an invitation: "Do you want to meet interesting people and hang out in a honest place where you are respected and the people are friendly? Want to build, and learn from other builders? Want to organise an event, a party, and you can't find a location or a stream? Want to sell your creations at Lollyggager Lane? Do you want something but you don't know what exactly? If you do, you must be a lollygagger!" Rask commented with a grin, "Sometimes there are also members of Hobo Junction at the Lane, since we Lollygaggers kind of are hobos too." In that spirit, enjoy this Utah Philips version of  "Hallelujah, I'm A Bum." In Utah's inimitable style, he takes the sarcastic tone of the original hobo song and makes it his own, interspersing stories between the verses about the joys of "going on the bum." A perfect soundtrack for bumming around Lollygagger Lane!