Tag: Exploring Second Life 2023

Coffee in large mugs and books I like reading
Bright covers calling and fresh beans for grinding
Stories that soar just like birds on the wing,
These are a few of my favourite things.

with apologies to the estate of Oscar Hammerstein II

Well, the above isn’t something you’ll find in the actual lyrics of any song coming out of the most unusual adaptation of The Sound of Music, let alone Favourite Things, but they are more-or-less what trundled through my odd little caffeine-fuelled mind on visiting the latest region design at Tripty’s (triptychlysl) Full region, Reality Escape.

Books, Coffee & Chairs – Oh My! is exactly that – a celebration of three of Tripty’s (and dare I say, my own) favourite things in life; I personally love curling up with a book and a but mug of freshly-brewed coffee (straight from my own grinder by way of the coffeemaker and milk frother). More than this, however, is the fact that it is a genuinely engaging region worthy of a visit.

Trippy is not new to SL, although her Profile might suggest otherwise at first look. Who she might have been previously is not important; as she notes herself, sometimes in life, all one can do is walk away from something for a time. However, I’m glad that she has decided to return, because whilst I’ve never (knowingly, at least) met her, she has a core of creativity and imagination which results in the richness and beauty of her region builds.

This is a simple, quiet and elegant region design that is easy on the eye and which can be easily enjoyed with a pleasant stroll; it is also a place with its own little quirks that add to the setting. The latter is evident directly at the landing point, sitting at the southern extent of the island. Here three little humps of grassy rock rise from the water, like mossy shells of turtles swimming along. The watery gaps between these three and the rest of the setting are spanned by bridges in the form of oars supported by books.

In addition, just across the water, at the point where the local stream reaches the surrounding waters, is an arch of chairs held aloft by statues. Shortly before reaching the sea, the stream passes over another channel of water by means of a culvert formed by the heavy forms of giant books. This not only marks the landing point as being separated completely from the main body of land, it further adds another element of quirky charm to the setting. The water channel is also crossed by a footbridge linking the fullness of the region with the landing point, beyond which a series of paths cross the grassy lands, offering multiple points of exploration.

The land itself is home to a single building, located on one bank of the stream. A former wooden-framed greenhouse, it now formers a cosy, inviting café; a place where books and a beverage can be enjoyed indoors and out, according to one’s preference. It is a place packed with details and bric-a-brac which deserves not only a visit, but time taken to appreciate how much has been put into it.

For the rest of the setting the paths offer the best means of exploration as they meander gently northwards and into the hills towards that end of the setting. Exactly which of the two main paths you take from the café matters not. Both depart the riverside decking at the café (or if you prefer, you can saunter up the loosely laid stones of the café’s garden path to re-join the path leading away from the landing point). Whichever path visitors take, they will be guaranteed a reunion with the other main path around the mid-point of the island before they separate once more.

The shorter of the two paths then continues on to a little east-facing bay and a campsite – one of many places visitors can sit and enjoy time or a quiet read. Further to the north, reached by the other path, the landscape climbs gently upwards to where a thumb of rock is raised over the rest of the setting, water tumbling from one side to feed the region’s stream. Crossed and re-crossed by the trail, the stream helps the many fields and meadows around the setting to bloom and the local trees to grow, offer fingers of shade to travellers and splashes of colour.

Throughout all of this are multiple places to sit and pass the time. Some are what might be called “conventional” – a rocking chair here, a tepee there and deck or two over the water, and so on. Others are more unusual -, or quirkily unexpected – a rack of bus-stop seats arranged as waterside seating; garden chairs converted to swings , benches forming steps and more oversized books helping to form the landscape, stepping up a slope like a garden fence.

However, the truth is that this is a setting for which words are not enough; there is a beauty to Books, Coffee & Chairs – Oh My! that is captivating (not to mention photogenic). Add to this the attention to detail and decorative touches by Trippy, and this is the kind of place which should be seen first-hand. That said, I wouldn’t leave doing so for too long; Trippy tends to rework the region periodically, so Books, Coffee & Chairs – Oh My! might soon disappear; which in some respects will be a shame – although I’m also curious to see what new magic Trippy cooks up for people to enjoy.

SLurl Details

• Books, Coffee & Chairs – Oh My! (Reality Escape, rated Moderate)

Briarwood Estates is an all inclusive, family role-play community and luxury residential estate. The work of Frankie Jade LaFoxx (Frankie Foxpaws) and her team, the estate covers multiple regions and offers a wide range of amenities and facilities for local residents and for visitors. These include a equestrian hub with horseback riding trails, a hotel and spa, farming, games, a marina and boating, shopping, live music, and more.

One of the more public elements within the estate is the Briarwood Wildlife Refuge which has recently been featured in the Destination Guide. Located on a homestead region, the refuge is linking to several of the surrounding regions via footbridges. Perhaps most notable among these for incoming visitors is the main information (and event?) centre, sitting to the east of the refuge. This presents a model of the estate in which available rentals are highlighted, as well as showing the public routes through all of the regions, with the walls presenting event schedule boards and general information for both visitors and residents, and which does much to present a picture of a well-run estate.

The refuge proper starts across the bridge from the information centre, and carries the following description:

Briarwood Wildlife Refuge is a wildlife refuge within SL. It is one of the first wildlife refuges operated by Briarwood Estates. The refuge protects more than 14 acres of marshes, grasslands, and woodlands.

Bounded by a sandy-shingle beach and open waters, the refuge is also cut through with watery channels that have the feel of being both human-made and more natural inlets, steams and a large pond. Together, this break up the landscape in such a way to suggest a natural location curated by human hands and eyes in order to offer the best environment for the wildlife and animals within the refuge.

The majority of the landscape is low-lying, suggestive of the wetlands of the description, with cart tracks offering various routes through and around the grasses and up into the few hills which also help to break-up the landscape. Most of the refuge is fairly open, the trees numerous enough to line the trails and tracks and provide shade, but not so numerous they overwhelm the park.

Most of this landscape is given over to the local wildlife, although there is also a meadow bounded by dry stone walls to one side, it and the barn within it home to sheep and goats. A second meadow, this one bounded by a fence and water, can be found across the grasslands, the home of a mare and her foal, the stables here suggesting more horses might also call it home – or they might equally be home to the donkeys wandering a little further away, but still within the boundary marked by the white fencing.

The local wildlife includes bears, deer, foxes and waterfowl, and is spread fairly broadly across the refuge as one might expect, offering opportunities for photography and discovery. The trails offer an excellent means to explore the setting, but if you have a wearable horse, they also offer the means to enjoy a little riding whilst exploring.

Considerable care has gone into presenting Briarwood Wildlife Refuge as a wholly natural environment, perhaps most notably in the time spent blending the mesh forms of the rutted tracks into the terrain. This is something which if not done properly, can lead to jarring results when gaps or holes are spotted or the texturing of the mesh does not match that of its surrounds. Here, however, the blending is a tour de force in how to do things properly to the point of near-perfection (aided by the inclusion of terrain textures in Alex Bader’s landscaping kits, allowing them to be applied to terrain), and does much to add to the expressive gentleness of the refuge.

The main exits from the refuge link to Briarwood Village to the west, which appears to have public access, allowing visitors to extend their explorations, and Briarwood Oaks to the south. The latter link takes the form of a cut stone, paved bridge spanning the water channel between the two regions. However, as this bridge is gated at either end and the gates are apparently locked against public access, I assume Briarwood Oaks is for local residents only, and their privacy should be respected, rather than attempts made to cross the bridge and go a-wandering among the houses.

True, the weather within the refuge is a little rainy – but again, this is in keeping with the overall tone of the setting, and it offers its own opportunities for photography whilst also working across a range of EEP settings for those who would like to de-emphasise the rain – as I hope the images in this article show.

Overall, a very engaging and photogenic setting in which to explore and take photos.

SLurl Details

• Briarwood Wildlife Refuge (Isthmus of Briarwood, rated Moderate)
• Briarwood Estates (rated Moderate)

Shawn Shakespeare pointed me towards Orcinus Isle, a homestead region designed by Lana (Svetlana Pexie), and which offers an engaging and intriguing setting that will be attractive to explorers and photographers alike.

The regions draws on several influences, which in turn can lead to additional influences playing on thoughts about it, leading to some interesting musings – or at least, that was the case for me.

The first of those influences is that of Perissa Beach, Santorini (or Thira) – which is also the first of the attractions for me with Lana’s build. There is a mysticism and beauty with Santorini which has long attracted me. Famed for being a part of the Minoan Civilisation, the island was the site of one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history, which took place in approximately circa 1600 BCE, destroying much of the island and perhaps helping contribute to the legend of Atlantis.

Today, Santorini is both a site of archaeological import and also a major tourist attraction. With towering cliffs, its famous buildings perch along the cliff tops and hills – such as Oia – the natural bay formed by the flooded caldera crater and its beaches, it is easy to understand why. With their distinctive red and black “sands” of volcanic dust the beaches of Santorini – Red Beach, Black Beach, Vlychada – are eye-catching, if not always easily accessible. As such, Perissa, with its rich black shores, has become the most famous, attracting tourists from all over Europe and the world at large.

From there, as Lana notes, the build draws on her love of coastal cliffs, waterfalls and oceans and – in another twist of attraction for me – mythology, to present a setting of the imagination, two island rising out of the sea on shoulder of cliffs, linked by a single arch of rock spanning the gorge which separates them, lending weight to the idea that there were perhaps once a single landmass which at some point became mostly split.

What caused the division is down to the imagination; perhaps it was the work of the sea, relentlessly pounding a weakness on the cliffs, eating away at the rock over the ages, deepening an opened crack, drawing down the mass from above and washing it away down through the years. Perhaps this island is influenced by volcanic or tectonic activity, the forces of nature breaking it enough for the sea to take over and create the gorge and bringing down the rock above until only  the mast span remains.

Whatever the cause, the two island masses now sit apart, the northernmost offering the most varied topography, with lowlands curving around a deeply cut bay, quickly giving rise to the sing to a curtain wall of high cliffs across the bay’s width, down which falls plummet in force, most likely adding to the bay’s expansion down the centuries and generating clouds of water vapour that hover cloud-like over the heads of the cliffs. Stratified and uneven, the back of this island suggests it may have been laid down by some form of process, again perhaps one volcanic in nature, successive eruptions adding another linear deposit of hardened volcanic rock.

To the south, the second island is more even, its near flat top covered in a head of grass and home to the remnants of a church at its southern end, whilst both island present a ribbon of volcanic shingles of a beach further suggesting they were once a unified mass of rock. Although split by the eastern exit of the gorge splitting the land the beach and landscape at the foot of the cliffs on either side of the water are sufficiently enough alike in terms of elevation and shingle / grassland mix to suggest both once run uninterrupted down the east side of the island.

But what of the mythological links? These can be found in the region’s name: Orcinus. Rather than a direct reference to the genus of Delphinidae we tend to refer to as “killer whales” (although a number of these majestic creatures can be seen swimming off the islands, Lana uses the term in its original meaning: “kingdom of the dead”, and / or “belonging to Orcus”, the god of the underworld in Etruscan and Roman mythology (the name Orca also being applied by the Romans to the genus of Orcinus).

The use of the name within the setting might be taken as a reference to is somewhat foreboding look, the evidence of ancient fortifications having once stood proudly here, perhaps long before the arrival Christianity and the church-builders, providing evidence that this was once a fortress or outpost, and thus may have had its name aligned with the god of the dead thanks to its remote location.

“Orcus” also has another connection to mythology, in that it is at times seen as being the origins for Tolkien’s “orcs”; from this use, countless other fantasy games and works of fiction have borrowed the concept of the orc. However, whether Tolkien directly derived his creatures from the name (by way of Anglo-Saxon) is debatable – not the least by Tolkien in his lifetime. However, there is something decidedly “Tolkienish” to the ruins and landscape here (or at least, faintly Nordic), which adds to the allure.

Wild and open and with numerous places to sit (not all of which may be easy to reach!), Orcinus Isle is an engaging and photogenic visit.

SLurl Details

• Orcinus Isle (Ravenmore, rated Moderate)

For those of us in the northern hemisphere, summer is rolling around again with its promise of sunny skies, green fields and lazy walks along riverbanks, idling under the shade offered by the outstretched boughs of a tree, enjoying an afternoon tea or coffee in an easy-going café and more.

More particularly for me, this time of year marks the passing of almost 12 months since the last time I dropped into to Missing Melody, making it high time for a revisit.

Missing Melody is, alongside of the equally eye-catching Longing Melody, presented by Bambi (NorahBrent) as a place of comfort, retreat and relaxation; a place which is never far from thoughts and where a welcome is always waiting. Or to use Bambi’s words, as they are so apt:

What is a Missing Melody? It’s that song in your head that you can’t get out but not sure how it really goes. It’s that temptation you want to have in your life so you can fight to resist. It’s that place in your heart that is always waiting to be filled.

– Bambi (NorahBrent)

For this iteration, Bambi offers a setting which reflects all of my descriptions of summertime above: a rural location rich in the delights of summer, from a stream bubbling and tumbling from a pond high on a hill to follow the curve of the land as it steps down the slope in a series of rocky drops to finally vanish within a culvert, through to the cattle content to stroll the broad grasslands, mingling with horses who also appreciate the rich grazing, even if the local sheep are a little stand-offish!

As a regular supply of fresh water, the pond and stream have attracted much of the local flora over the years, such that the pond is now guarded by the weeping heads of willows and a curtain-like surround of shrubs and bushes which seem determined to protect the secrets of the ducks and geese happy to splash about in the water, and offer the local deer a private place to drink. However, it is a secret that has been penetrated, as the gabled boardwalk reaching out over the pond (but not reaching its opposite number on the far bank) shows.

This gabled boardwalk reaches the pond from a small gathering of garden outhouses sitting alongside a well. Looking a little careworn but still with potted plants being tended, even if the porch swing could do with a little TLC, this little garden space seems to also be a place of play for youngsters going by the tricycle and scooter waiting the return of their owners. How long they’ve been here is hard to say, but the presence of goslings playing in a tub of water, a cat happily sleeping in the sun and a deer and fawn close by, suggests the erstwhile owners of these wheeled means of transport have been gone some time.

Across a bridge spanning the tumbling stream, a path leads down form this little hideaway to reach the Oh Deer Café where refreshments and “sweet yummy moments” await, either indoors or served on the terrace overlooking the sloping growth of wild flowers washing upslope from the stream to counter the neatly-growth flowers in their planters along the edges of the terrace.

The café and the little hidden garden corner aren’t the only places of retreat / refreshment here.  Cross the stream and take a walk over the shoulder of the hill and past the grazing cows and horses, and you’ll spy brick walls and a small out sitting up on the flank of the setting’s uplands. The route to it will take you back past the pond, allowing you to join with another path that links it with the red brickwork. Within the high walls and shaded by trees still wearing their springtime blossom sits a fountained pond dominated by a flower-draped statue. Here, as koi swim in the clear waters, a couple might find a place to sit and sample a glass of burdock and wildflower wine.

For those who prefer to remain close to the babbling chatter of the stream, there is a tree house waiting at the end of a pair of rope ladders. With a bench seat / swing (I’d perhaps not try swinging it too far!), it allows a peaceful watch to be kept over the horses and cows below.

Finished with a pleasing sound scape (albeit one in which the café can sound like the Lunchtime Hordes have descended upon it), it really doesn’t need to be said that Missing Melody is, as ever, highly photogenic and makes for a genuinely easy-going visit … even if I just go a say it anyway 🙂 .

SLurl Details

• Missing Melody (Runaway, rated Moderate)

As a part of my on-going (and occasional) visits to museums in Second Life, I recently had the opportunity to drop in on the quite excellent Museum of Computing History, managed and curated by Brian Aviator, with the assistance of Timothy McGregor and Kevin Jackman.

Tucked neatly under Brian’s Blackslough Field Regional Airport and overlooking the inland seas and waterways of Sansara, this is one of two museums Brain operates / curates in Second Life, the other being the LGBTQ History Museum and Cultural Centre (also due to appear in these pages later this month, and which is – at the time of writing – featured as an Editor’s Pick in the Destination Guide in recognition of Pride Month).

Extending over two floors, and with an ample, well-tended forecourt / terrace public space before it, the museum offers an impressively comprehensive dive in to the history of computing, from the abacus to the blade server and the rise of AI, featuring not just the technology and technological innovations, but many of the the individuals who have contributed to the development of computers, computational engineering and computer science down through the centuries and decades.

From the entrance foyer, dominated by a bust of Charles Babbage, the lower level of the museum comprises the Admiral Grace Hopper auditorium and four exhibition halls in which may be home to static exhibitions, and others have their displays rotated over time as new exhibits are developed (as is the case on the museum’s upper floor). At the time of my visit, the exhibits in these lower halls comprised:

• 

  Early Pre-PC Computing, which includes one of the earliest computational machines known to Man (the abacus), alongside models of Babbage’s Difference Engine; the electro-mechanical devices which played major roles in the European theatre of World War II – the German Enigma code setting machine and the Polish-British code breaking Bombe; the machines from the early decades of the modern computer era:  punch-card and tape-driven monsters, and even a look at one of the first computers to be used extensively “off-world”: the Apollo Guidance Computer (thanks to Hollywood and numerous dramatizations of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, perhaps now more widely known as the “1202 alarm computer”).

• The Personal Computers Exhibit, which is liable to raise fond smiles for some, including as it does models of Commodore, Sinclair, Apple, Tandy, IBM and other machines as well as their associated operating systems upon which many enthusiasts cut their computing teeth. I personally found myself smiling at the presence of the BBC Model B and (for reasons that are both convoluted and irrelevant to address here, but include personal travels, Sir Arthur C. Clarke and film director Peter Hyams) the Kaypro II).
• An Interactive Fiction Exhibit, with its reminder that there was a lot of brain-engaging fun to be had with computers long before the arrival of graphical games and shooting the bejesus out of others. This is also supported by a video presentation called Get Lamp: the Text Adventure Documentary, available through the Admiral Grace Hopper auditorium.
• A look inside what might now be regarded as an “old school” data centre with huge boxlike machines (rather than huge boxlike racks of machines), and the odd super computer.

These hall all feature models of the various systems, boards, boxes and computers which in turn represent the work of multiple creators from across Second Life – such as (but most certainly not exclusively) Crash Lunar and (appropriately, given the museum’s subject matter) Ozzy Wozniak, both of whom provide a range of free models of computers, handhelds and consoles for those interested. Additional models have also been provided by Brain himself, imported (I believe I’m correct in saying) from 3D models developed by the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Spain – for whom Brian gives acknowledgement. All are presented with display boards which, when touched, will provide a notecard of contextual information (and it should be noted that even the posters on the walls in some of the halls can also be touched for information of their own).

The upper floor if the museum comprises five exhibition halls, all following the same approach as the lower floor, with each focusing on a specific exhibit related to computing. At the time of my visit, these comprised: the relationship between computers and telecommunications and the rise of networking; video games and console systems; the development of artificial intelligence; the noble / ignoble art / act of hacking (which of these terms largely dependant on the who, what, where, when and how of the said hacking) , and biographies of some of the leading personalities and individuals who have played a role in the evolution of computers, mathematics, computer sciences, communications, and related subjects.

Comprising images of the individuals concerned which can be touched for a notecard-based biography, the latter covers people who – at least in name – are likely be  known to many: Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, Alan Turing, Steve Jobs, William Gates III, Steve Wozniak, Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Linus Torvalds, for example – and one Philip Rosedale; those who might be familiar (if not really known, such as Blaise Pascal; Seymour Cray; Vinton “Vint” Cerf (who has actually been in Second Life) and Robert Kahn; to those who really should have much wider recognition than they do, but whose achievements have perhaps been overshadowed by others – such as the aforementioned Grace Hopper, together with Margaret Hamilton and Dorothy Vaughan, who at times get pushed aside in the male-dominated history of computing, and Douglas Engelbart, whose work at times gets subsumed by the near-mythic achievements of Steve Jobs.

The latter’s work (with that of his team at the Stanford Research Institute – now SRI International) is the subject of a second video presentation within the museum, highlighting what would become retrospectively called The Mother of All Demos. The was a live event held in 1968, in which Engelbart interactively demonstrates his team’s oN-Line System (NLS), which is very much the precursor of just about everything we take for granted with computers today: the graphical interface with its cursor (or “bug” as they called it) and mouse; the ability to work collaboratively and share files dynamically; the use of hypertext and hypermedia – even teleconferencing. The video offered at the museum summarises Engelbart’s presentation, but for those interested, the entire demonstration – which lasted over 90 mins – is also available on You Tube.

I admit I did find myself a little conflicted over the use of notecards throughout the museum; not because it is a difficult format to understand, but rather because there are instances where the information is liable to change (such as with the biographies of some of those featured within the upper floor exhibitions, or on the subject of AI), which might lead to some information becoming out-of-date. As such, I wondered if offering a mix of web links as notecards, depending on the subject matter, might not be easier from a maintenance standpoint.

But, that is very minor quibble; there is no denying the Museum of Computing History has been extremely well put together, offering as it does something of interest for anyone with an interest in the subject – whether computer nerd or as someone simply interested in historical context and / or the influence of computing and computational machines have had down the centuries / decades. Information is easily accessible, and the range of topics cover and their associated depth means there is a lot of be absorbed without being overwhelming, and more than enough to encourage repeat visits.

 SLurl Details

• Museum of Computing History (Blackslough, rated Moderate)