Telling: Like it Is

This is a very difficult entry to write...

Alisa Falconvale -- my partner in Second Life and InWorldz, and for whom both the InWorldz region and the pre-fab business is named -- has left Virtuality. She had no choice: personal finances, exacerbated by the general state of the economy and local conditions where she lives, forced her to disconnect her Internet service. She'd seen it coming for a long time, and she hung on as long as she could... but finally, the evening came when we began the sobering task of transferring everything possible from her (and her alt, Migisi Diavolo) to me.

It was very much like I imagine preparing for one's own organic death might be.

I'm hoping it was just bitterness talking, when she said that she wouldn't be back to InWorldz (and probably not SL, either), even after she gets back on her monetary feet and can reconnect to the Web. Even so, she was repeatedly adamant that I dissolve the partnership (she used the word "divorce") and get on with my virtual life.

One thing that did not happen during the transfer of ownership: All of her builds for sale at our showroom in the sky in InWorldz are still hers, and the payments will be going into an account whose owner will not return to collect (or use to buy textures for more building). I'm unsure, right now, what the best course is regarding that...

Ali was a much more prolific builder than I have been, and some of her works have been quite popular. I personally believe the denizens of InWorldz should still have the opportunity to own them. So, for the next little while, I'm going to leave everything just as it is.  The region -- and the business -- will always be named Falconvale, in remembrance.

Otherwise, I can only wish that the same beneficial lightning which struck me last December, and saved my sorry pixel ass from the same fate, finds her... and soon.

Good luck, and be well, Ali. <3

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Though trained in the liberal arts, my career is in engineering. Perhaps that makes me more open than some to the idea of Geometry as Art... but I see it this way: What else better combines pure mathematical Truth with subtly profound Beauty than geometric shapes as lovingly rendered and highlighted with color as these: the work of Wizard Gynoid?



Those, and others equally fascinating (and more difficult to photograph) are currently on exhibit at the University of Western Australia's sim UWA VIRTLANTIS. You can also read what Wizzy has to say about her work in UWA's blog.

One sim away from there, among many other creations possible only in virtuality, is Miso Susanowa's latest: "Time as a Helix of Semiprecious Stones":


This geometry dances in a stately manner, its motion -- aided by an ambient soundtrack -- bringing a calming stillness to the observer.

I must confess that my engineer side wants to know, "How is it done?" I have tried in my clumsy way to construct precise geometry with prims, and have been frustrated at nearly every attempt to extend it out of a single plane. Part of me craves the algorithms and formulae Wizzy uses to generate her constructions, as well as the script code Miso had to write to get her rectangles to cycle through shape and color while moving in three dimensions -- yet the rest of me is satisfied to leave the mystery to the wizards.

Excuse me: to the Artists.

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Recently, the northern end of West Harbour has been getting a little... steamy.

The impetus was that airship -- just too cool to pass up, especially at the introductory price of a mere L$299 (I believe the offer is still current, if you want to get yourself one). It's a sweet ride, too -- simple arrow-key controls, nice leisurely pace, perfect for mid-altitude sightseeing. I've taken it for a spin or two around the 5 Islands; then Mari McCann told me about Bay City's Third Birthday celebration, and I decided to try combining a longer cruise with a little "photojournalism".

So... about an hour before the parade was to begin, I teleported to Hau Koda Airport and rezzed the blimp. It handles sim crossings pretty smoothly, but it turned out getting an early start was a good thing: first time I flew toward the outdoor stage (in the region called North Channel, adjacent to the city of Nova Albion), the blimp suddenly disappeared and I fell to the pixel earth, while a message in my Chat window informed me that my object had been "returned" because the parcel I was crossing was full.

You thought banlines were a problem for aviators? They, at least, give you some visual warning and a chance to steer around them!

Back to Hau Koda, re-rezz the blimp, and this time I flew over the new open-water sims the Lab recently created along Bay City's north coast (which now make it possible to sail all the way from the new boardwalk, past the Color Sims to the ANWR passage, then north to Heterocera). Once I arrived at my vantage point, I was joined by my new friend Bamboo and his lovely assistant Ahuva.

Wave to the camera, Bamboo...

A note about the images to follow: from a hundred or so meters in the air, the temptation is to increase draw distance so that the background looks like it would from that vantage "IRL". I compromised on 512 meters, with the resulting slow-down in texture rez time... so there's more gray in the photos than I'd ordinarily accept.  Lesson learned: the blimp is a great way to attend an outdoor event, but not the best platform for recording them.


The parade, though not long, featured RacerX Gullwing's giant racing snails:


...and a 'zilla:


At the height of the celebration, there were 51 avatars in the sim:


... including a good-sized contingent of old friends and acquaintances from another of Second Life's finest communities, Luskwood:


The event was so successful, it even drew a griefer -- well, a lame-assed griefer wannabe, anyhow. That's the helicopter in the upper right corner of the photo above - its occupant spewed the same tired old aspersions about furries, and even tried to crash the sim with a particle rezzer cube, of all things (sheesh... it ain't 2007 anymore, asshole). Needless to say, the banhammer fell, swift and sure.

Anyway ~ congratulations to Bay City on three years of community cohesion, continuity and coolness!

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Bay City: one of the newer, and preeminent, themed estates in Second Life, with a strong community feeling and the organization to back it up. Until January of this year, only the right-hand group of regions existed on the Main Grid, but there was a nearly-identical duplicate on the Teen Grid.  Then they were merged... the adult Bay Citizens reached out to their new younger neighbors, and now it's pretty much all one.

The left-hand copy -- more accurately, the inlet on its northern shore -- is the focus of this Seconderth entry. Marianne McCann (more of a SL history maven than I am, and frequent contributor to my research) alerted me to a Linden Department of Public Works project in those two regions, Weston and Oak Bluffs. In keeping with the twin estate's overall  theme, it's an old-fashioned boardwalk with piers, like the one in Atlantic City before the era of casinos.



Both of the entrances are guarded by a pair of -- what else? -- hippos, first created for the infohubs by Altruima Linden in December 2005 (Mari tells me that many of those are still in place).


The rest of the structure is the work of Sylvan Mole, who marked it "Entrance Idea (don't use me)"  Sorry - they did anyway.


Anyone want to speculate about "Funnel Cakes of Doom"?  I'm not sure I do...

Now then... Here is the bait Mari used to entice me to visit this construction site: the boardwalk itself.  The LDPW Moles have constructed it using prims first rezzed by Alberto Linden.


The oldest make up the boardwalk's surface -- November 11, 2002, not long after Linden World became closed-beta Second Life  -- and were first used in the boardwalk in Varney, long since gone.  The log understructure dates from 2005, and can also be found (along with the surface prims) in the Boardman boardwalk. The railings were created in 2005 as well, but I don't know where else they may have first appeared (please post in the Comments if you recognize them).

Past the boardwalk's western end, you'll find this tunnel passing beneath the canal:


It leads to Oak Bay, the next region north, where the Moles are putting the finishing touches on an aquarium. All of the denizens of the deep are already installed, and they are extremely well done. I photographed some of them (but not all - I want you to go there and see them yourself!), and you can find those here, along with more of the boardwalk (including the mystery railings).

I have to share this, though:



By the way... next Saturday, May 14, Bay City is celebrating it's third birthday, with a parade and musical events, beginning at 12:30 pm.


PS: In my next Second Life, I want to be a Mole.

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