Month: November 2016

The whimsy of WeeVille in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey

WeeVille, Oyster Bay; Inara Pey, November 2016, on Flickr> WeeVille, Oyster Bay – click any image for full size

A regular stopping off point for me as I make my way through Second Life is Sera Bellic’s Homestead region of Oyster Bay. Every few months Sera gives the region a make-over presenting something new for people to explore, and I’d been looking forward to making a return trip to see what was new since recently noting the region was closed to visitors –  a sure sign Sera was reinventing it.

Over the years, the region has seen a lot – scenes of destruction, tempest, beauty and mystery; there have been country houses and gardens; fun fairs and glimpses of the future; country walks – and even a look into both heaven and hell. I’ve covered much of the changing face of Oyster Bay in these pages, and was delighted to find that for its newest look, Sera has turned to the realms of whimsy and fantasy in order to present WeeVille to the world.

WeeVille, Oyster Bay; Inara Pey, November 2016, on Flickr WeeVille, Oyster Bay

On arrival, visitors might initially be fooled into thinking this is an art environment: sitting alongside the landing point is one of Mistero Hifeng’s sculptures, Bella 16. However, beyond it, over flagstones and flower-strewn waters shaded pink under a timeless sky rich in the colours of spring, sits a great stone wall into which, beckoning silently, is set a pair of wooden gates.

Step through these gates, and your Adventure begins with a visit to a part of The Shire – or is it? Certainly, across a meadow of lush grass Hobbit holes can be seen, with little camp fires burning outside as if the occupants might be taking advantage of a springtime evening. But the folk standing before those little fires are smaller and stouter than Hobbits, and prefer to have boots on their feet, with some keeping the hair strictly to their faces in the form of thick beards and flowing moustaches. Dwarfins they may be, but they do appear to share in a love of fireworks.

WeeVille, Oyster Bay; Inara Pey, November 2016, on Flickr WeeVille, Oyster Bay

Climb the wooden steps between the hillocks of the Hobbit … the Dwarfin … holes, and pass through a second gate, and you’ll enter a birch wood carpeted with tall poppies, through which a path of  stars leads. Beyond it is another realm  where flowerpot people play, giant budgies hop and rabbits offer an interesting line in word processing from a … mobile office…?

“Welcome to WeeVille,” Sera says of her design. “My first fantasy sim and hopefully not my last. I hope you enjoy visiting as much as I enjoyed creating it. Remain young at heart and have some fun!”

With a quaint little stilt town built over the water in one direction, a garden of unicorns and mer-horses in another and lots of little touches to be explored – be sure to open doors and look inside places – together with places to sit and watch and cuddle and take photos, WeeVille is certainly a place where the heart can feel young, and the young at heart can smile.

WeeVille, Oyster Bay; Inara Pey, November 2016, on Flickr WeeVille, Oyster Bay

And, at a time when winter regions and snowy landscapes are starting to appear across the grid, WeeVille could be just the ticket for those who need to escape dark and cold nights and gain a little reminder than spring will soon be coming around once more.

SLurl Details

  • WeeVille (Oyster Bay, rated: Moderate)

Mont Saint Michel returns to Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Mont Saint Michel - once again back in Second Life
Mont Saint Michel – once again back in Second Life

As is being widely reported, Mont Saint Michel has returned to Second Life.

Its return was first noted by Tyche Shepherd during her weekly grid surveys on Sunday, November 21st, and the news quickly spread – my thanks to all who contacted me on the matter.

An announcement about the region’s pending departure was originally made by the region holder, Moeka Kohime, in September 2015, saying the region would be closing at the end of that month. However it was still open to the public in November 2015,  and didn’t vanish from the grid until October 2016.

Following this, there were numerous pleas from users on Twitter and other social media for the Lab to “step in” and “save” the landmark region. While such requests are understandable, they are perhaps not so easily fulfilled for a wide range of reasons.

However, as several people who contacted me about Mont Saint Michel noted, the region now appears to be held by Mogura Linden. It’s not clear whether this means the Lab is intending to preserve it – but I do know that they do take a genuine interest in these kind of matters. That said, I’d venture to suggest that as a personal business is connected with the region, any such act would require the original region holder’s OK; and as I’ve once again discovered for myself, getting a response from Moeka is far from easy. As such, it’ll be interesting to see how this develops.

In the meantime, if you’ve not visited Mont Saint Michel before, now is your chance to do so. It’s a stunning reproduction of the original, and well worth the effort.

Mont Saint-Michel
Mont Saint Michel

SLurl Details

2016 viewer release summaries: week 46

Posted on by Inara Pey

Updates for the week ending Sunday, November 20th

This summary is published every Monday, and is a list of SL viewer / client releases (official and TPV) made during the previous week. When reading it, please note:

  • It is based on my Current Viewer Releases Page, a list of all Second Life viewers and clients that are in popular use (and of which I am aware), and which are recognised as adhering to the TPV Policy. This page includes comprehensive links to download pages, blog notes, release notes, etc., as well as links to any / all reviews of specific viewers / clients made within this blog
  • By its nature, this summary presented here will always be in arrears, please refer to the Current Viewer Release Page for more up-to-date information.

Official LL Viewers

  • Current Release version: 4.1.2.321518, dated November 10, promoted November 15 – formerly the Maintenance RC viewer download page, release notes.
  • Release channel cohorts (please see my notes on manually installing RC viewer versions if you wish to install any release candidate(s) yourself):
    • Project Bento  RC (avatar skeleton extensions), updated to version 5.0.0.321598 on November 15 – bug fixes (download and release notes).
  • Project viewers:
    • No updates.

LL Viewer Resources

Third-party Viewers

V4-style

V1-style

  • Cool VL viewer Stable branch updated to version 1.26.18.33 and the Experimental branch updated to version 1.26.19.35, both on November 19th (release notes).

Mobile / Other Clients

  • Group Tools updated to version 2.2.42 on November 19 (no release notes).

Additional TPV Resources

Related Links

Space Sunday: from Earth orbit to Pluto, via Mars

Posted on by Inara Pey
The "supermoon" of November 14th rises over the MS-03 spacecraft the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where it was being prepared for launch to the International Space Station
The “supermoon” of November 14th rises over the Soyuz MS-03 spacecraft the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where it was being prepared for launch to the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

The second of the three so-called “supermoons” which see out 2016 produced some dramatic photographs and video from around the world. Perhaps one of the most stunning  came from cameras at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, monitoring Soyuz MS-03 as it stood on the pad at Launch Complex 1.

As I noted in my last Space Sunday Report, a “supermoon” occurs when the Moon is both full and at perigee – the point in its orbit when it is closest to the Earth as it travels around our planet in an elliptical orbit. Such events occur around every 14 months, and can see the Moon appear to be 14% bigger than its average size in our sky, particularly when seen low on the horizon.

The “supermoon” of November 14th was special because the Moon was about at its closest point to Earth in its orbit – “just” 356,509 kilometres (221,524 miles) from us and the Earth / Moon system is approaching the time of year when it is closest to the Sun (which will occur on January 4th, 2017), thus making the full Moon “extra” bright for those who were able to see it. The next time this will occur will be in 2034. However, December 14th will see another “supermoon”, albeit one at a slightly greater distance away from the Earth, so those who missed November’s – weather permitting – may still get to see one before the year is out. In the meantime, here’s NASA’s footage from Baikonaur  – the film obviously speeded-up 🙂 .

Soyuz MS-03 lifted-off from Baikonur on Friday, November 18th, carrying aloft Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, American astronaut  Peggy Whitson and rookie French astronaut Thomas Pesquet. It successfully docked with the International Space Station on Saturday, November 19th, marking the start of the Expedition 50/51 mission aboard the station, the crew sharing space with the Expedition 49/50 crew of mission commander Shane Kimbrough of NASA and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrei Borisenko, who have been aboard the station since October and who are due to return to Earth in February 2017.

For Whitson, this is a double first: she is the oldest woman to ever fly to the ISS – she will celebrate her 57th birthday in orbit – and, come February, she will be the first woman to command the space station for a second time in its 16-year operational history, having already become the very first woman to take command during Expedition 16 in 2007. She is also NASA’s most experienced female astronaut, with nearly 377 days logged in space, including six space walks totalling 39 hours 46 minutes. By the time she returns to Earth, she will have spent more time in space than any other US astronaut, surpassing the 534-day record set by Jeff Williams in September 2016.

Peggy Witson with Oleg Novitsky and Thomas Pesquet posing for photographs prior to launch. Via: Peggy Whitson
Peggy Witson with Oleg Novitskiy and Thomas Pesquet posing for photographs prior to launch. Via: Peggy Whitson

During their time aboard the station, Whitson, Novitskiy and Pesquest will conduct hundreds of experiments and studies in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science. A particular focus will be recording how lighting impacts the overall health and well-being of station crew members, and how the microgravity environment in orbit affects tissue regeneration in humans and the genetic properties of space-grown plants.

The crew carry with them some special meal time treats as well. Taking a leaf from British astronaut Tim Peake’s book, Pesquest requested fellow countrymen and renowned chefs Alain Ducasse and Thierry Marx develop a special menu for the crew. Highlights include beef tongue with truffled foie gras and duck breast confit.

Soyuz MS-03, piloted by Oleg Novitsky, closes for a docking with the Russian-built Rassvet module on Saturday, November 19th. In the foreground is the Cygnus resupply vehicle which recently arrived at the space station, together with one of its circular solar power arrays
Soyuz MS-03, piloted by commander Oleg Novitskiy, closes for a docking with the Russian-built Rassvet module on Saturday, November 19th. In the foreground is the Cygnus resupply vehicle which recently arrived at the space station, one of its circular solar power arrays partially blocking the view of the incoming Soyuz. Credit: NASA

“We have food for the big feasts: for Christmas, New Year’s and birthdays. We’ll have two birthdays, mine and Peggy’s,” the Frenchman said at the astronauts’ last press conference before the launch.

Pesquest,  a former commercial airline pilot with Air France, is also set to offer some entertainment for the crew: a keen musician, he’s taken his saxophone to the ISS. As part of his work on the station, he has special responsibility for the Proxima research programme of 50 experiments developed by the European Space Agency and the French national space agency, CNES. The programme’s name was suggested by 13-year old Samuel Planas from Toulouse, France, following a nationwide competition among school children. It is taken from Proxima Centauri, with the X in the name both representing the unknown, and the fact that Pesquest is the tenth French astronaut to fly in space.

Oleg Novitskiy, a 45-year-old lieutenant colonel in the Russian Air Force, is also on his second mission aboard the ISS, having previously served as the Soyuz TMA-06M commander during the flight to the ISS, and as the station’s flight engineer during Expedition 33/34. He has spent 143 days 16 hours and 15 minutes in space.

Continue reading “Space Sunday: from Earth orbit to Pluto, via Mars” →

From Here On There Be Dragons in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
Split Screen - From Here There Be Dragons
Split Screen – From Here On There Be Dragons

Now open at Split Screen, curated by Dividni Shostakovich, is From Here On There Be Dragons by Alpha Auer. It stands as a celebration of these mythical, mystical beasts and much of what they represent  both culturally and in terms of our own psyche.

Within an abstract environment of ornate towers lit from within and semi-transparent floors, sit the dragons of the title. From Alpha’s notes, they stand as guardians of self; that this strange structure is perhaps – if I might borrow from the current British television incarnation of a certain sleuth) – a “mind palace”, in which is hid the wonders and terrors contained within our deeper selves; countries of the mind through which we might only travel with care, and having accepted the challenge presented by the dragon standing before each one.

Split Screen - From Here There Be Dragons
Split Screen – From Here On There Be Dragons

More than just a guardian, however, the dragon can be seen as a symbol of the challenges we might face in travelling those countries of the mind. As the protector of treasure, it stands as the guardian of Self; as a creature of power, harnessing a primal element – fire – it is a reflection of our own force of personality; it can also stands as a symbol of the fears we might want to overcome and of our own self-courage in doing so; and it may also reflect our baser emotions: anger, selfishness, temper.

But there is more here that introspection. As notes, this is a celebration of all that dragons can represent. Hence why the floor of this “mind palace” is inlaid with a leaf from Abraham Ortelius’s Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (“Theatre of the World”), considered to be the first true modern atlas. It is, as Alpha notes, a reminder that dragons once represented the unknown and the need to take care in the world at large: that there were limits to our knowledge and understanding of all that lay around us.

Split Screen: From Here On There Be Dragons
Split Screen: From Here On There Be Dragons

Then there are the dragons themselves, a mixture of common western and eastern archetypes, all vibrant and alive in this ethereal setting. Within their claws many hold an egg; a further symbol of the dragon’s role in many creation mythologies. Of course, in some religions the dragon symbolises the End of Times. In fact there is hardly a culture in the world, east or west, north or south, where the dragon doesn’t resonate in some way.

Hence why Alpha notes, “Dragons have always been with us, although we have come to deny their existence and their potency.” Hence why, perhaps, she also includes an extract from T.S. Eliot’s Little Gidding, allowing it to stand as an echo of the fact that dragons have always been with us, and always will be.

Split Screen - From Here There Be Dragons
Split Screen – From Here On There Be Dragons

From Here On There Will Be Dragons will be open through until the end of January 2017, and you can also pick up one of alpha’s free avatars during a visit.

SLurl Details

Sunday, November 20th: Stories at the Park in Second Life

Posted on by Inara Pey
The authors and storytellers: Caledonia Skytower, Trolley Trollop and R. Crap Mariner
The authors and storytellers: Caledonia Skytower, Trolley Trollop and R. Crap Mariner at the October Stories at the Park

Sunday, November 20th will see the next in the Stories at the Park series, jointly presented by Holly Kai Park and Seanchai Library – and I hope that you’ll pop along to the event, which starts at 15:00 SLT.

Stories at the Park coincides with the monthly Art at the Park exhibitions at Holly Kai Park. Each month, story writers and poets from Seanchai Library and beyond are invited to visit Holly Kai Park and view the 2D and 3D art on display, and then to write a 100-word short story (“drabble”) or a poem of up to 100 words about any of the pieces of art which inspire them.

Submitted stories are then read in the live voice session for each Stories at the Park, which takes place at the Storyteller’s Garden, in the centre of the art display area. Authors can either read their own works, or if they prefer, have one of the Seanchai Library staff read them. Submitted stories are also published on the Holly Kai Park blog.

Stories at the Park - the audience arrives
Stories at the Park, October 16th – the audience arrives

For November, Caledonia Skytower, Aoife Lorefield, R. Crap Mariner  and – all things being euqal – Trolley Trollop – will be on hand to read pieces inspired by our current artists at the park: Sheba Blitz, Maxi Daviau and Skinnynilla, Terrygold and Sorcha Tyles.

While the readings are in Voice, there’s no need for you to have an active microphone; as long as you can listen via speakers or headset, that’s all you need. So, why not join us for some superb stories and poetry from 15:00 SLT on Sunday, November 20th at Holly Kai Park?

Just climb the steps by the lading point. And of course, you’re welcome to come early and explore the art and the park, or stay after and wander the paths and tracks of Holly Kai Park.

SLurl Details