Spellbound

By Bloodykitty

This little magical place here goes by the name of Spellbound, the region name being Raven Wood. Now you may be wondering what it is, and let me tell you that it is a wonderful and beautiful sim, even without the store on the land too! There's snow all around, dead trees, bright lights, everything magical. That isn't the whole point though, and the reason why is because this particular place has a store on it that includes just hair and accessories. While I haven't bought anything yet, I plan to hopefully soon. 

The owner of the store goes by the same name as the region, and I honestly think it's unique that it's like that. This store has a good amount of hair and accessories, but it's mostly pastel hair as far as I seen, and just cute little bows and hats that you'd think centers around the magic theme itself. I've explored the store and the land itself and it captured my heart because of the scenery and simplicity, but also has it's spooky features too. For me the spooky things were the symbol that you appear on after teleporting, the dead trees, castle, and even the greeters at the door too, fake ones of course for show. As far as I can tell and know, on the second floor there isn't hairs yet, but spaces of whee the images would go and such. While this sim wasn't active at the time of my adventure there again today to take the snapshot, people were still there

All and all I think it's a nifty place to be for those hair and accessories addicts and lovers, as well as people who like to take screenshots for flicker or tumblr, or even just to adventure around it like myself. I feel like the atmosphere was a mix like I said of magic, spooky, and cuteness. With that said I totally will visit this store and place again to get a few things there and just to look at everything. I hope you all have fun on your visit!

 

Raven Wood (124/96/23)

 

Bloodykitty

The Happy Vixen Gets a Makeover, Expanded Hours

By Bixyl Shuftan

In response to the Sunweaver community's classic rock club closing it's doors to regular events, at least for now, the Happy Vixen club and hangout is expanding it's hours, in addition to having gotten a makeover.

Following the announcement from "The Vinyl" classic rock club about it's hiatus, Nydia met with several of her friends to talk about what to do. Eventually a decision was made. Until Perri Prinz, the Vinyl's DJ and co-owner along with RECoyote Mindes, had taken care of the real-life problems that stopped her from doing regular events, the Happy Vixen would be expanding it's schedule. In addition to Sundays at Noon SL time, the Happy Vixen would do events at the Tuesday and Thursday 6-8 PM timeslots.

But this would not be all. It was decided to give the club and hangout a makeover. The club was temporarily closed over the weekend as Jasmine Dawn worked on the club and expanded it. When she was done, the venue was larger and in three distinct sections.

The dust has settled and we're ready to open the doors once more, So drop by and take a peek at the changes we have made for you. First event is Tuesday night SEE YOU THERE.

As before, it has a bar area on the beach next to the water, covered with a thatch roof and with a number of stools next to the bartending area. But there are three games to play there in between events, Greedy, Cards Against Humanity, and Parchesi, or "Cheesy," which has been popular among the locals. The Happy Vixen bears no responsibility for any sore lungs from side-splitting laughter resulting from games of Cards Against Humanity.

Connected by a walkway to the bar, built on a platform over the water and also covered by a thatch roof, is a hot tub. Several people can relax there at once, including couples for which there are cuddle poses.

Inland from the bar is the dance floor. The DJ plays music from the booth at one end (he or she can get out on the dance floor, but normally they operate things from where they would in real life), while the crowd dances about on the floor. There are two danceballs for singles and couples. There are also two dancepoles for anyone wanting to use them (first on gets the pole, so please no arguing with the hostess or manager).

Further away from the club is a floating raft where a couple can relax and watch the waves wash on shore. There's also a fishing game being set up, so those interested can get their poles and head on over.

The grounds of the Happy Vixen are currently owned by Helios Auxifur, whom is continuing to pay the tier at her expense.

The first event of the club was on Tuesday night, August 4.

Hi-ho! To celebrate the cub's renovation, we're having a Beach Party tonight! Our squirrely DJ Dusk will spin the tunage as we dance away in swimming trunks, bikinis, one-pieces, or anything else you feel is appropriate wear to the beach. So get yer flip-flops and head on over!

Dusk Griswold performed a series of beach tunes for the crowd. The prize, initially 1000, was doubled to 2000 Lindens. Jenni Greenfield, whom was twirling fire batons on the dance floor, was the winner that night.

So if you want to dance to some top tunes at a first class beach club, head on over to the Happy Vixen. If there's no event, you can always play a game with a friend, fish, or just watch the waves lap against the shoreline to the setting sun.

Purrfection Estates (236, 219, 24)  

Bixyl Shuftan

  *Addition* The Thursday night party had an even better attendance than Tuesday. So here's a picture.

Relay for Life 2015: The Sunbeamer Camp

After about a month of building the exhibits off-site, and with a couple weeks to build on the sim, the Sunbeamer camp was completed this week.

Besides Team Captain Rita Mariner (the uniform was for a video unrelated to the Relay), Shockwave Yareach and Dusk Griswold pictured here were two of the main builders, as was Cynthia Farshore. Others who helped out included Becky Shamen and Skylark LeFavre.

Upon entering, one of the first things one sees is a pink fox statue, a memorial to Artistic Fimicloud, a well-known Relayer of Team Passionate Redheads (the predecessor to the Sunbeamers), and resident of the Sunweaver Estates.

The main part of the camp was inspired by "Space Mountain" of Disney World, though was made a bit different to avoid any possible unwanted attention from the company.

Inside are some awards and pictures from the team's past, as well as those from the days of the Passionate Redheads.

And of course there's this year's Gold Level award.

 All around "Not Space Mountain" are displays of information related to cancer, such as detecting and treating it. Some you can click on for a notecard for more details.

This includes a promising new form of treatment: Proton Therapy.

There's a Crystal Quest game one can play, with a few places one can pick up a basket needed for it.

The game was designed by Shockwave, pictured here with the basket. Get all eight crystals for a prize.

There are two towers here. One is the Prayer Tower, which launches balloons with names of those people wish to honor.

The balloons go up and into the air, floating to Heaven.

The other tower, called the "Space Needle," or at least someone did, by Becky Shamen, the tallest point of the exhibit.

One can get inside through this green triangular teleporter at the bottom, and get a good view of the surrounding sims (after adjusting one's preferences in the viewer).

For an even higher view, there's a rocket ride one can take.

Take-offs and landings are fairly frequent, once it lands giving a little less than a minute for people to get off and in.

Besides an even greater view of the sims, there's information one can read about how NASA and the space program have helped in the struggle against cancer.

 Both the rocket ride and the space needle are towards the more wooded part of the camp.

 Besides the trees, there are a few critters wandering around.

The southeast corner of the camp is more parklike, with hedge decorations and sprinkers, in addition to benches one can relax on.

And so that's our close-up of this year's Sunbeamer Relay camp. Take time to visit the others as well

RFL Strength (35/135/21)

Bixyl Shuftan

"Something Amazing" And Other SLB 12 Exhibits

Going about the SL12B Exhibits, there are a lot of them. Some are fairly simple. Others have a good amount of detail. Here's a few examples of the more noteable ones I've come across.

At SL12B Enchant (191/78/22) was the exhibit for the 1920s Berlin Project, by Jo Yardley.

 A sausage and pretzel cart was there like in previous years, but clicking on it didn't get me anything this time. So none of my "wurst" jokes this time.

I didn't see anyone in the bar, though there were a few people at a public square, two of them fans of the Berlin sim.

Kenny Luckless, a longtime resident, had his "Something Amazing!" exhibit at SL12B Electrify (194, 52, 22). A sign at the walkway up the build read, "Hello! My name is Kenny Luckless, and I like to be in Natoma where I often build things that become silly freebies. When you are here, you has to explore by zooming and by use right click to see if you can take a copy. If you want to learn how to build, you can always visit 'The Ivory Tower of Primitives.'"

 Kenny was there, and was happy to talk about his build. He had gotten the idea from, "A huge floating island, (an) old build that did fascinate me when I was new." There were a number of freebie items one could pick up, "Then are many things here things I just tested to do." The "point" of his exhibit was to encourage people to build, "And to explore and learn to use right click (smile). I would love to see them try to make similar things." The build was a combination of prim and mesh, "The stairs here was prims I converted to mesh. ... I often build in SL and export to Blender and make them to mesh."

There were a few signs around, as well as some more subtle messages, most done in humor, "Some are Linden and Mile jokes, and silly jokes too (grin)." He handed me a couple, "I shall try (to) make one moer with a Ebbe joke to before SL12B is over(grin)." Kenny then asked me, "Did you see the trap?" He directed my attention to a box trap with a slice of watermelon underneath, with a plan nearby showing the target: Torley Linden. The idea was to hide in the bushes when Torley was near, then press a button there when he went for the watermelon slice, "I has still not manage to capture a Torley (grin)."

Going up the walkway, there was a hollow area inside the build, where there were pictures of Kenny, as well as more freebies and things one could grab. On top of the rock was a barn, made not by Kenny, but by Marcov Carter. Before leaving, Kenny directed my attention to a Linden coin on the grass, "Textures are inside so they can do a own or make it better. ... I has not do anything serious at all. I has to look so all is good in Natoma."

At SL12B Wonderous (10/105/22) was the Bay City Exhibit by Marianne McCann.

In her "Poultry Report" blog, Uccie Poultry stated Marianne had help from ADudeNamed Anthony on the exhibit. There was also a ride inside that she explained was based on the one from the Ford Wonder Rotunda in the 1964 World's Fair in New York City.

The ride was one describing how Bay City came to be and how it represents the mid-20th century North American urban experience, as well as being the community which a number of residents are a part of.

In SL12B Stunning (227/141/21) was Loki Eliot's exhibit, "Childhood Dreams."

Loki's exhibit involved a story that progressed as the character went along, about a weary man who dreams of being a child whom goes on an adventure.

In Loki's blog, he stated that the exhibit was one from the Second Life Fifth Birthdayin 2008. "It was a collaboration with friends of the Chid Avatar Community to build a large interactive story book. The hope being that it would enlighten people to what the child avatar community was all about." He had brought it back for those whom weren't around then to look at.

One can read more about Loki's exhibit (here).

These are just a few of the exhibits. Many more besides these are available for view, at least as long as the Birthday grounds stand for the next several days.

Bixyl Shuftan

Mauve

From BloodyKitty

Mauve is a quiet and peaceful place to be when you want to get out of the whole large crowd scene of Second Life. It's simple, relaxing, easy to navigate, as well as the fact that it looks beautiful in the different times of day in-world. In the description of the landmark it says about it being able to be a meeting place for events, info, freebies, or even a place to simply hangout. While I haven't personally used it for those specifically save it for a place to rez when I start up the virtual world. This particular sim is apart of the mainland, which I believe is one of the places a new resident is able to start in after finishing orientation / tutorial island; or at least it's where you can come if your new and need info. From my understanding the said information can be found on various boards in the above picture. Whether you want to check out the blog for Linden Lab, a landmark for those newbies around the wonderful virtual world, as well as an advertisement. 

If your looking for a real experience then just waiting for people to show up out of the blue, this sim isn't for you. If your the kind of person that likes to wait or has to get some organizing of their inventory done than it is! The two features it includes is that you are able to use voice to communicate with other residents, old and new, as well as the ability to fly around and get a bigger view of the whole area. What adds to the simplicity and helpfulness is nearby locations. Unfortunately you may not be able to access these since some may be homes, or even lands you cannot be on depending on your rating of general, moderate, and adult. This place is supposed to be clean of any vulgar words, or even getting naked like you can in a sandbox. I am not sure if you can get kicked out of the said place if you do  have your avatar naked, but I don't think they'd do it if you plan on putting clothes right away. No one likes a resident in their birthday outfit now do they?

Personally I haven't had bad experiences around there considering it's set as my home location, due to me being a homeless little resident of SL. People usually come and go, whether it's because they are new, or just bored and tping around until they find an awesome sim. As for the loading and rezzing it depends on your computer on how long things will load like objects, prims, trees, and so forth; generally I do not have an issue with waiting for things to load here because of it being not so cluttered and having many builds unlike other places like clubs, homes, shops, and so forth. I definitely recommend checking it out at some point or another. Like I said previously its usually quiet and not action packed like other sims are, but if your wanting to get away and do a bit of a clean up, you can without a problem. 

The place is owned by Governor Linden and created by Chip Poutine. Upon trying to look further into information on it there isn't information about when it was created. Although this is only an assumption, it might of been created when Second Life was started or at least someone during the beginning of when it was created and open. At this time of writing the article I haven't been able to locate Chip Poutine inworld, and at the moment I tried contacting him, Governor Linden wasn't online. 

BloodyKitty230

Silverscreen: "Home of the Movies in Second Life" (2008)

Originally published in May 19, 2008 in Second Life Newspaper

By Bixyl Shuftan

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One of my friends from the Second Life Tour group, Delaynie Barbosa, told me about one interesting sim, Silverscreen.

At the teleport point, (145, 147, 33), one finds a huge amphitheater with a four-sided media display screen, which dominates the central island. Currently, it plays media of a trailer for the "Iron Man" movie. Four other islands  make up the sim. Besides flying over, one can also take a tram to and from there to the main island, which can be called over by posts at the edge of the islands (don't forget to sit in them).

The island to the southeast has an "Iron Man" prim statue and a free Iron Man avatar and AO (which you can also find behind you at the teleport point), as well as another media screen for the movie trailer. The southwest corner has a scene from the "Transformer" movie of two of the robots in a fight, Bumblebee and Barricade, as well as two free avies of them.

The northwest island is for the latest "Die Hard" movie, a scene of a fighter jet firing at a truck on a bridge. To the side are a few freebie items and teleports to other parts of the sim. The map shown suggests there were more "Die  Hard" exhibits in the past, but about all that is left of them is the free "Warlock Room" building under the central amphitheater. The northeast island is for the movie "300," a scene of some Ancient Greek buildings. One can find a free Spartan warrior outfit there, and look for the helmets, spears, and the shield elsewhere there. And like in the movies, I found a "blooper" there. On the floor was a smoldering cigar - not exactly something one is supposed to find on an Ancient Spartan set. ;-)

Silverscreen also has a group of the same name. The group charter says "Silverscreen is a multi-purpose event and exhibition venue developed and managed by Picture Production Company (PPC). Silverscreen opened to the public in March 2007, and has since hosted Q&As and expos for movies ..." The founder of the group, Danyboy Lightfoot, calls himself the manager of Silverscreen, "I've been involved in bringing movies including 300, DIE HARD 4.0 and Transformers into Second Life." He is also with the "Transformers" sim group.

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"When Second Life went to the movies" is what one might call this place and time. The place was made at a time when real life companies were looking to the virtual world as a place to advertise. Within months, places like this would be pretty much a thing of the past. Yours truly still has the "300" outfit and "Bumblebee" avatar.

Bixyl Shuftan

Nemo (2010)

The following was originally published in Second Life Newspaper on April 23, 2010.

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By Bixyl Shuftan

Those with a fascination for Steampunk, fans of the classic novel “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” or even just a simple interest in either, may want to head to a certain place in Second Life: Nemo.

The entry point is a metal platform, with a walkway leading to a metal tube poking up through the surface, a doorway open and leading to an elevator. One can take the elevator down, and find oneself in the middle of an undersea city. The structure is done in the style of the Victorian era, but with strange machines mixed in. Near the entrance is a model of the complex, which can help in seeing where one can go while down there. There is also music in the background, which was a bit haunting at times when I was there.

The underwater complex is well detailed. Some rooms are simple living quarters in which one can sit on a couch by an amp and read the books of the day. There is also an occasional portrait of a notable person, appropriate to the setting, at the time, such as scientist Nikola Telsa. There is also an organ in one

In other places in the structure, one can look at electrical and plasma-filled equipment fit for a mad scientist’s lab. There are robots in the place, resembling sea creatures, in various stages of assembly, as well as sketches of the contraptions on the wall. If one looks outside, an occasional working model can be seen moving through the water. There are also other machines for use outside the lab, such as a fortune-telling machine. The machines are done in good detailed, sometimes with moving gears and other parts.

Nemo was built by Sextant Shepard, a French journalist in real life. In the Linden Blogs, he stated he was working on another area, the Oruchalcum Mine. Nemo itself is still a “work in progress,” evidenced by a closed door with a sign at one point.

A fascinating sim that anyone who’s read the works of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells will enjoy.

Nemo is at the FRANCE3D futuna sim at (91/148/21).

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Someone also did a Youtube of the area, which one can see: Link.

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Nemo was one of the last places I would cover for James and Dana's Second Life Newspaper. This sim received a good deal of praise for it's design. It was featured in the destination guide and mentioned by Linden Lab as a key place to go to. More was built after the article, including scenery above ground, so I went back to see the new additional areas. Sadly, it didn't stay up for very long. In a matter of weeks, it was gone. I would go back once more for a few more pictures before it faded away.

Bixyl Shuftan