Exploring SL6B- Uplink

Today puzzles me a bit, because in a few hours, Philip Linden will be giving his closing ceremony speech for SL6B. And yet, it will still continue to be open for another week. I heard that ‘all the events will be over’ by the time he delivers his speech. But that isn’t true at all- I don’t think there is anything stopping people from having events at their builds, over the course of the next week. The SLPN build certainly is, as there will continue to be live podcasting shows daily until SL6B closes. (And by the way, for the podcast recording of the excellent discussion panel regarding the Australian ban on SL, go to http://slpodcast.net/2009/06/metanews-xtra-aussie-special/)

Today, I’ll be exploring the Uplink sim. http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B%20Uplink/126/126/25 

Starting with the Volunteer Headquarters for this years SL6B. I didn’t see any actual volunteers at the build. However, there are listings inside that will tell you who the coordinators and staff for each of the sims are, and their online status in case you need assistance.

Volunteer Headquarters

Space Is There  is a build by Nickola Martynov. When you are done exploring her exhibit on the ground, climb the spiral pathway and take the elevator up, to see the rest of her exhibit high above the ground.

Space Is There

At Persephone’s Grove, Celebrate Paganism in Second Life. Enjoy the art and games, brought to us by Persephone Loon.

Persephone's Grove

At the UFO Crash Site, you will find a flying saucer thats smashed into the rocks, and some eerily glowing circles ahead.

UFO Crash Site

Jalisco, Mexico is the build by Brent Renard that specializes in the cultural heritage of Mexico, and the state of Jalisco.

Jalisco, Mexico

The PrimPlay Educational Sculpture is a fun and interesting exhibit by alvid Majestic and Sandy Susanto. PrimPlay is a dynamic sculpture demonstrating many of the possibilities obtainable with prims in Second Life. Its really pretty, and fun to watch the shapes changing and disappearing, only to reappear again in a different form.

PrimPlay

Potatotem is a visual timeline of Thomas Potato’s life as a builder, starting at the bottom and reaching 245 meters into the sky.

Potatotem

Exploring SL6B- Virtuocity

Blogging all these great builds at SL6B has been a lot of work, but an enormous amount of fun. I’m discovering a lot of really talented artists that I wasn’t familiar with before, and gaining a new appreciation of the work that these content creators have put into their creations.

I chose the Turtle Island Nights preset by Torley Linden, for the Virtuocity sim. I see a lot of pink in the builds surrounding the landing point (http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B%20Virtuocity/128/128/23), and they compliment the pink in the sky nicely.

We start with Annabelle Fanshaw, where the pages of an open book beckon you to hear a story. Relax in this utterly breathtaking garden, and click a book to read the text.

Annabelle Fanshaw

For someone like me that loves urban and metropolis style sims, I was drawn to the Immerse Into The Future build like a moth to a flame. The towering skyscraper with flashy neon signs and animated billboards by Nadir Taov is just the sort of thing I love finding in SL. I was even more excited when I read the notecard about Shipyard- a brand new urban RP sim. According to Nadir’s profile, he is also the owner of the Crack Den, which I am endlessly fascinated by. I can’t wait to go explore the Shipyard as soon as I have some spare time. If Nadir’s build here at SL6B is any indication of what to expect at Shipyard, then it should be pretty amazing. http://shipyard.sl/

Immerse Into The Future

Vitis Foederata is a collection of art displays. Contained in a series of spheres, each interactive exhibit will immerse you in the artwork itself. Follow the spiral staircase up to each level, and take your time to fully explore and enjoy this build.

Vitis Foederata

The SL Left Unity Feminist Network is just that- a network to promote the feminist movement in Second Life, by Scylla Rhiadra.

SL Left Unity Feminist Network

I was so happy to find the SL6B Time Capsules Display. I had really wanted to be there for the opening of the last capsule, but it must have been held directly after Phil Lindens opening speech on Tuesday, because I completely missed it. There is a nice display here, though, of capsules as far back as 2003. You can even add a (full permissions) item to the 2009 capsule, to be preserved for another year.

SL6B Time Capsules Display

At the Do It Yourself Car Wash, you’ll see that the ‘cars’ of the future are a bit different. Disembodied hands sponge off several space ships that are parked in the carwash stalls. A cute display, by Floatie Hock.

Do It Yourself Car Wash

Andie Rau brings us CoOL BZoO Radio- The Future of Music and Dance. Andie’s display here at SL6B is a modern dance club setting, with streaming music from the radio station and plenty of space to get your dance on.

Walter Crumb and Mary Oakleaf groove to the music

Kenn Nilsson’s display brings us RPS, the system developed for roleplaying in virtual environments. There are clickable signs that will give you more information on RPS, as well as various RP groups in SL, such as Tellurian, The Principiality of Nostitz, Karamoon and Terminal Island.

Kenn Nilsson

Georgianna Blackburn has put together an interactive, educational display that will teach you more about the Periodic table of elements. Step onto the element displays to see a pop up description.

Georgianna Blackburn

Earth Primbee has done a remarkable job at Inspire Space Park. Use the teleporter to beam up to a spectacular solar system, where you can float amongst the stars and planets.

Inspire Space Park

Making Reality Better is a powerful exhibit by Huntress Catteneo, that takes a closer look into mental health issues such as agoraphobia, and how virtual worlds can have an impact on helping people overcome their mental and emotional barriers.

Making Reality Better

Diana Allandale provides us with excerpts from her writings, and a comfortable place to sit back and read beneath the stars.

Diana Allandale

The House Of Avatars build by Talia Tokugawa is a 3D mockup of the Koinup logo. Featuring artwork from the winners of the Avatar Pics competition on Koinup.com

The House Of Avatars

The Justice League Unlimited build will provide you with information on JLU, its mission statement, and an application to those interested in being a League member.

Justice League Unlimited

Paisley Beebe brings us the Perfect World Productions build, a larger than life TV set where you can go inside and relax in the lounge, watching Treet Tv shows like Fabulous Fashion and Tonight Live.

Treet TV Lounge

QTLabs is an IT Consulting business that offers both virtual world and real life services, including building, scripting and DJs.

QTLabs

Gods Did Party Afterall, by Zutshi Lupindo. At the time I was here, SL was not cooperating, so I couldn’t get any notecards to load. But there appeared to be several signs that tell would give you more information.

Gods Did Party..

Ahh, Insilico. Another futuristic metropolis that I plan on visiting in the future. Created by Skills Hak. I had heard of Insilico and I’ve seen some amazing photos, but I have not really been there,yet. I didn’t realize that its also a roleplay sim, but there is a sign with information on this 4 sim, 1000 player cyberpunk megacity.Definitely worth checking out.

Insilico

Exploring SL6B- Dimension

The TP point for Dimension (http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B%20Dimension/128/128/24) dropped me off in a very brightly lit area, with a pathway leading off in all four directions. The is the base of the Hive Tower, by Mantis Oh. A giant yellow button on the ground gave me the option of some teleport locations in the tower. Each level gives an amazing view of the Dimension region.

Hive Tower

Skylar Smythe has a lot of events planned at Fostering The Literary Arts. There will be live presentations every day through June 30th, so pick up the notecard at the exhibition.

Fostering The Literary Arts

At SL Gravity, Wolk Writer has showcased some of her digital art and sculptures, including a group of ‘attack’ vraagteken. These snake-line physical prims will make a beeline to you as soon as you enter the exhibit, and batter you around. But its all in good fun, and Wolk’s artwork is quite impressive.

SL Gravity

Cypress Rosewood brings us a mix of ambient, electronic music in A Sound Rebirth In The Virtual World. Cypress is a musician who specializes in ‘ambient, space music’ and also hosts a radio talk show that streams into SL. According to his press release, “Cypress has hosted a weekly radio show for 2.5 years on WRFN, Radio Free Nashville called “When Worlds Collide with Cypress Rosewood” which is simulcast in Second Life to a studio audience and features music and interviews with members of the Second Life arts and science community who discuss how the two worlds interact. Podcasts of these shows can be found at the CypressRosewood.com website.”

A Sound Musical Rebirth

Cube Inada brings us The Reality Of Virtuality. A huge cube-like structure of soldiers joining hands. Cube Inada is the creator of Starbase C3. ( www.starbasec3.com ) and Designer- Owner of Cube Productions inc. (www.cube3.com), and has been creating virtual worlds for 15 years.

The Reality Of Virtuality

The New Generations is a collection of avatar photography by Fee Cuddihy.. but with a twist: “In the beginning, there was a land. A land where animals roamed free. Over time these animals developed and the barren land was no more. At first this was very slow, but bit by bit they evolved into the human state..”

The New Generations

At the Scenes From Burning Life 2008 theatre, Pookie Gufler has set up a large movie screen and audience seating where you can watch a machinima film from last years Burning Life festival.

Scenes From Burning Life 2008

I’m a sucker for cityscapes and skyline photography, so the Hermes build by BadWolf Bracken really caught my eye. From what I gather, Hermes is a music distribution company for Second Life musicians. For more information, you can go to http://www.slevolution.com/.

Hermes

At the photoLIFE studio, you can learn more about becoming a professional photographer in SL. OomPoppaMowMow Snookums is the creator of the photoLIFE system- a very detailed studio set up that includes texture changing backdrops and more.

photoLIFE

In Freedom Of The Future, Kestheba Karas demonstrates her future vision of what she imagines it will be like to connect to virtual worlds, via sensory override technology.

Freedom Of The Future

The OrbeSL- Hispanoamerica en SL exhibit is a collaboration between many builders. There are sculptures, free gifts, and a stage for live events.

OrbeSL

L1Aura Loire’s art installation, The Future Of Virtual Subjectivity, is an interactive build that you can walk through and be a part of. There is a notecard at the beginning of the build to explain how it works, and an artist statement notecard once you get to the top.

The Future Of Virtual Subjectivity

The Underground is a build by Queen Coronet, to promote her group that is centered around the underground electronic music culture in SL.

The Underground

I love the field of fluffy blue and white flowers, at the Yokohama Marching Band build.

Yokohama Marching Band

I heard about the Folding Minds exhibit on another blog, so I was really looking forward to seeing this, firsthand. Kolor Fall is the artist behind this interactive exhibit. Use your mouse to trace a letter or drawing with the silver beads at ground level, and see the giant prims overhead slowly shift into position, to match. Amazing.

Folding Minds

Join ScarlettLa Roux in Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend AMPED, as she performs music by former artists and up and coming stars, in the showroom built by Xanthia Lisle.

Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend AMPED

THe FuTuRe oF ViRTuaL WoRLDS iS CoMMuNiCaTioN by Jana Kyomoon. Jana is an SL musician who performs as a solo artist mixing electronica with ambient improvisations and rhythmic reflections. “By being part of this exhibition, celebrating the future of virtual worlds, I feel like I am part of the future of music
As we become more isolated in the real world we become more connected standing on this platform to the future.
Communication through music and the arts is very much alive behind the monitor.”

Color, light and music join together this performing arts exhibit by Hiroshi Kumaki. At Words Come True, touching the cubes will fill the air with color and music, and Hiroshi will perform live on improvisation during the performance hours.

Music

Words Come True

Throughout the week, SharonLee Windlow will be performing digital and electronic music almost daily at Music Of The Future. See the performance schedule at the door for show times and dates.

Music Of The Future

The Mystery@SL6B is a mystery to me. I’m not sure what its all about, but this build by musician Alazarin Mondrian is nicely done. There is a stage set up, and dance balls, so I imagine Alazarin will be performing during the week.

Mystery@SL6B

Making The Arts Accessible is a simple but pretty build, by Josue Habana. There is no information anywhere that I could find, though.

Making The Arts Accessible

Exploring SL6B- Cryo

Its day three of the SL6B festivities, and today I’m going to pay a visit to the Cryo region. http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B%20Cryo/128/128/24 Also, today I’m using the Wuxia Nights preset by Torley Linden. I highly recommend playing around with your environmental settings before you begin, to enhance your experience. The region default at SL6B is midnight, but playing around with your settings will make things look a lot prettier.

The landing point for Cryo puts you on the tram platform, next to a tram rezzing station. Once again, I recommend that you DO NOT use the tram, but explore on foot, instead. You will get so much more out of the experience.

The first thing that you’ll really notice is the SL Mainstage. This is where Philip Linden had his opening speech, and many of the events for the week will be held here. What I did not realize at the time, was this was built by Prad Prathivi! What an incredible job he did, good work, Prad!

SL Mainstage

Reed Steamroller is quite the builder, and he did a fantastic job on the Sand Castle Studios exhibit. Approach the portals for an important message, and then climb the glowing discs to the Guardian Of The Metaverse for a special gift.

Sand Castle Studios

I found the Loki Eliot build very interesting.. dozens upon dozens of child avatar headshots on the floor, and some resource guides for children in SL.

Loki Eliot

Zealous Nightfire is the person behind Ham Rambler, where the Blarney Stone Pub makes its presence at SL6B known.

Ham Rambler

Dem Uriza Come escape the stresses of Future living in an oasis of serenity and tranquility. Bring a picnic, watch the birds and butterflies or join the kids on the swing set. Wherever we go in the future, we cannot forget to bring the beauty of Nature with us.

Dem uriza

Make The Future Your Playground by Marianne McCann, child avatar.

Make The Future Your Playground

The SLPN- Podcasts For The Metaverse build was done by CEO of SLPN, Stuart Warf. There are several panels around the exhibit that will give you information on SL related podcasts and where to find them. Throughout the week, there will be live podcast events on the SLPN stage. If you miss out, you can download them and listen anytime, at http://slpodcast.net/

SL Podcast Network

**Special Event Announcement**

Coming this Saturday at 4PM SLT is the first ever, XTRA special edition of MetaNews Daily, SLPN’s daily news show all about virtual worlds and the issues relating to this.

This Thursday news broke from Australia that new legislation relating to online games that have a rating of 15+ would be blocked from Australia. (which Second Life would fall under due to a technicality)

There are a bunch of Australians that have a significant impact on virtual worlds, including Second Life. Need a few examples. Well for one there’s Treet.TV (formerly SLCN), Second Life’s biggest virtual television network and one of the big businesses to come from Second Life.

So I have decided to hold a special edition of our MetaNews show to specificially discuss the issues and have an open roundtable to discuss this issue. By open, i mean open.

I will be specifically inviting various Australians who reside in virtual worlds to talk about this over the next  day to take part in this discussion.

This special edition of Meta News will take place at SL6B on our plot over on SL6B  Cryo at http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B%20Cryo/150/223/23

Exploring SL6B – Polaris

Beginning today, I really want to pick a start point at SL6B and really take my time to explore each build. There really isn’t a ’starting point’ for SL6B, since there are multiple locations to teleport into. Not knowing where to begin, I picked the first sim on the list in search- Polaris. http://slurl.com/secondlife/SL6B%20Polaris/128/128/24

I landed next to one of the monorail rezzing platforms, looking at a sign that says,’Tour the SL6B regions- approx. 35 minutes round trip!’. I rode around on one of these trams yesterday, with Stuart and Itazura. They are pretty cool.. however, I really recommend exploring on foot. You can miss so many details while whisking by on a tram. I tend to follow the tracks, since I haven’t seen any real sidewalks yet. Because there is so much glow in all the builds, the recommendation is to keep set to midnight (which is the region default), to get the full effect. I don’t know if its just me, but I have enormous problems being able to figure out where I am or get my bearings, anytime I’m set to midnight in ANY region. Everytime I log into SL, I immediately set to midday, so I can see where the hell I’m going. But I love the glow here, so I’m trying to keep my setting darker to really enjoy it. Midnight is too boring for me, so I found a nice Torley preset called Anwar, that really compliments the ambiance. I cranked the stars to full, and raised the scene gamma just a bit, and now I can see a tiny bit better. The pink and blue horizon, swept with stars, makes everything even more beautiful.

Right in front of me was a huge glass dome, much like a snowglobe. Inside the dome, rain pattered down over a wheat field. At first I thought this was a build by AM Radio, because it reminded me so much of the Faraway. But closer inspection showed that the owner is Poid Mahovlich. I circled the globe, but could not find any signs or notcards explaining the build, and there was no information I could find about it or the builder. Just the parcel name, The Last Rain Maker.

The Last Rainmaker

This puzzles me about SL6B. I’m not sure what the point of the builds are, yet. I’m guessing its simply meant to showcase the work of the exhibitors, although I’m hoping that there will be more information at some of the other exhibits. I did find Poid’s blog in their profile though, which I subscribed to.

Life In The Future Worlds is the next exhibit down the line. Miso Susanowa is the artist, and provides a notecard packed full of information on this installation. Without delving too deep into the notecard, I get the sense that this build is about an astronaut on a mission in space, who has probably been there for some time. There is a telecommunications panel up, where he’s chatting with his daughter about a school project, and she wants to know when he’ll be ‘home’. Home being, the virtual world where they are able to ’see’ one another.  Behind him is a computer system, and a containment chamber where extraterrestrial plant forms are held, for observation.

Life In The Future Worlds

I became familiar with Teal Freenote during the Raglan Shire Art Walk, a couple of months ago. Gallery Freenote is Teal’s build here at SL6B, where she is able to showcase some of her extraordinary sculptures.

Gallery Freenote

Your Future Will Be… by Scarp Godenot is a glowing panel filled cavern of abstract, animated designs and sculptures. When you walk over the colored panels, you will get funny audio messages about Scarp’s visions of the future.

“In the future, we will only sleep for 27.3 minutes per day, and that will be plenty. The rest of the time will be spent playing World Of Warcraft..”

“The future will be nuclear winter.. as a cure for global warming..”

“In the future, Star Trek 127, The Final Chapter, will end with the entire galaxy being sucked up into a black hole..”

Your Future Will Be..

Rancor

“Bring a friend. 1. Walk past the hate. 2. Walk past the lies. 3. Walk past the unforgiveness. 4. Walk right into love.

This build by Cienega Soon is stunning, and impressive. Step through the curtains of chains and hearts into the center of the build. It all falls away around you, leaving you to face the heart backdrop behind two poseballs. ‘Break the chains of bitterness- I forgive you- I forgive me.’

Rancor

I’m having trouble finding the name of the build by Sabine Stonebender, which is a shame because its one of my favorites on Polaris. The parcel is simply titled “Polaris”, and clicking on various parts of the build does not show the exhibition name. Its very pretty, though. Wonderful use of glow and lighting effects. Walking over the sculpted bubbles causes chain lighting to briefly flash across your path.

Sabine Stonebender

At Ad Astra, Rusalka Writer has set out a series of powerful, gripping images of the destruction of man, both on our environments, and on ourselves. Photos of devastation from Hurricane Katrina, drought, war and famine surround a group of giant sculptures of men that are crawling forward, reaching up towards  a mostly gray planet.

Ad Astra

Mechatiki Research Public Lab is the creation of Magggnnus Woodget. An assortment of robot pet creatures tumble about their cages or roam loose on the parcel. I saw one of them had toppled over onto its side, and I spent quite awhile trying to bump it back onto its feet again before eventually giving up. I was afraid Magggnnus would return, and think I was griefing his exhibit. So the fallen robotic insect had to be left alone, legs flailing in its futile attempt to right itself.

Mechatiki Research Public Lab

At the Witness exhibit, Kiya McMahon displays a series of her artworks within a kiosk at the center of a geometric stone building. Clicking the thumbnails will display the photograph on the larger viewer, above.

Witness

Nebula West by whyroc Slade left me awestruck, and all I can say, is wow. An abstract mish-mash of sculptures, ambiant-trace music, shimmering glow and steam. Vastly impressive work.

Nebula West

In the Future Art exhibit, Mater Rhode has built a Cubematic Art display. The interactive art floor allows you to walk across the wooden blocks, causing them to flip around to show different sides, creating a unique work of art every time.

Future Art

Kerupa Flow is the artist behind the Living Together In This World art exhibit. I love the circling birds in one of her art displays, and the cool poem that goes with it.

Living Together In This World

Callipygian Christensen gives a such a cleverly creative spin on two-dimensional art in her Multiple Views exhibit. I was very much impressed, and really enjoyed this one a lot. I won’t say anything more about it, so as not to give anything away. But carefully read and follow the directions on the black cube at the base of the stairs, and I think you’ll enjoy it too.

Multiple Views

White Lebed’s The Entertainer

“The object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create a reality of the same intensity.”  Alberto Giacometti, 1901-1966

The Entertainer

When I arrived at the Walking Away From The Desktop build, there was a sign up by Jimmer Gabe stating, “Dear Visitor, due to some unforseen technical issues, the main (scripted) content of this build is offline. We hope to be back up and running sometime on Wednesday.” Well, I don’t know what the offline content is, so I’ll have to check back. But the build looks cool, so far.

Walking Away From The Desktop

Beauty In Nature by SnakeLady Melody, is a collection of nature photography.

Beauty In Nature

I LOVE Bryn Oh. Everything I’ve seen by her has been amazing. And as soon as I stepped inside the Scene From The Rabbicorn Story, I was immediately reminded of the Gashlycrumb series of art installations I saw a year or so ago. I IM’d Crap Mariner to ask if it was by the same artist and found that yes indeed, Bryn had done that series as well. I am not familiar with the Rabbicorn story, but I’ll have to look it up, now.

Scene From The Rabbicorn Story

There isn’t much to see at the Music StarMine build right now. But I have a feeling that naturalway Flow puts on a pretty spectacular fireworks display, when he’s around. With any luck, I’ll manage to see that this week.

Music StarMine

Naergilien Wunderlich takes us on a journey through time, where she explores the evolution of fashion through the ages in Wunderlich’s Fashion Through The Ages. The exhibit starts with the medieval period and works its way through to Edwardian.

Wunderlich's Fashion Through The Ages

And finally, I saved the best (?) and biggest for last. The Alien Twin Towers by Mantis Oh is a build of epic proportions. It’s really difficult for me to capture the true scale of how enormous this massive robbot is. But trust me. Its big. Real Big.

Alien Twin Towers

(Did I mention I’m afraid of robots?)

Exploring SL6B- Day One

Yesterday, Second Life began its 6th birthday celebration with the opening of SL6B. Several sims have been dedicated to the incredible builds put together by many SL residents. The theme this year is the Future of Virtual Worlds, which means a lot of glow and futuristic builds.

I was around last year during SL5B, but I really didn’t attend. I didn’t quite ‘get it’ yet. I checked out Crap Mariner’s Podcasting build which was really cool. But beyond that, I literally did not see a thing. Plus, I believe it started during my work week, and my time in SL was limited then. I really didn’t have time to do much exploring while SL5B was open.

This year though, I find myself with plenty of time, and lots of curiosity about what this birthday celebration actually means. I’m not entirely sure how long SL6B lasts, no one has ever been able to give me a direct answer, but I think its at least one week, if not two. What I would love to do is tour as many of the builds as I can, and blog it like crazy. From what I’ve seen so far, everything has been absolutely amazing, and I really want to document this with photos, and my thoughts and comments.

The official opening for SL6B was yesterday, June 23rd. The event was supposed to be opened to the public at exactly 10am SLT, when Philip Linden would give an opening speech. Being the early bird that I am, I had gathered at Destination Station with Stuart Warf and Itazura Radio at 9am. We planned on hanging out until the sims opened up, then we were going to TP over there and try to catch the speech. I told them that I was going to start hammering at the TP button at 9:50, because you never know- maybe it would open a few minutes early. Sure enough, at 9:57 my teleport request went through! I was on my way, leaving poor Stuart and Itazura behind. Within seconds, the sim was completely full and neither of them were able to get in. I kept trying to send them TP’s, but they failed every time.

I found myself in a large, glowing dome, surrounded by gray people. I could hear Yxes Delacroix giving direction to Philip and the other Lindens, as Treet TV set up to record the opening ceremony. There was platform seating everwhere, but I was not able to move or see well enough to tell what was actually available or what seats were already taken by people who hadn’t rezzed for me yet. Philip started his speech, so I panned my camera around to him and tried to stay still and not lag-fall on anyone.

Philip Linden

I got an IM from Itazura a few minutes into the speech. “I found you!” I glanced back behind me and saw that he had found himself a spot. I was kind of standing a bit in front of the front row, so I tried to shuffle back and out of the way. But the lag was making it difficult to move with any real control, so I ended up staying put so I didn’t topple onto Catherine Linden, who turned out to be sitting right next to me.

Catherine Linden

As the speech went on, my attention started to wander a little bit. It wasn’t that I wasn’t interested- but I was anxious to start really exploring. By this time, Stuart had managed to TP into Cyro, where his SL6B build was. As soon as the speech was over, I darted out of the building and started trying to figure out how to make my way to Stuarts build. His TP offers weren’t working, so we gave each other map rights so we could track each over via beacon. I finally made it to Cyro and to his build, which looked really cool! I liked what he did with the logo backdrop, behind the SLPN stage.

There will be live podcasting shows at the SLPN stage throughout the week. Stuart kicked it off with Podmafia at 3pm with Yxes, and Itazura Radio filled in as the guest spot.

Podmafia Live

Right after that was MetaNews Daily, with Stuart Warf and Malburns Writer as the co-host of the day. There was a nice audience, and towards the end of the show, Carl Linden came drifting by in robot form. He ended up hovering above the audience seating, to watch the last few minutes.

Carl Linden watches MetaNews Daily

There will be more podcasting events over the next week, including MetaNews Daily, Cybergrrl Oh, Fantasy and Folktales, and Coronaverse.

DSN Review- CIA Designs- Evita Babydoll outfit

Its time to review another cool gift that I received from the Designer Showcase Network.

When my package arrived from *CIA Designs*, I tried on the Evita babydoll blouse and low rise jeans, and immediately fell completely in love with it! So much so, that I snapped a picture right away and began gushing on plurk about how cute it was.

I am extremely picky when it comes to clothing, and its very hard to impress me. Ayla Stradling managed to do that with this outfit, and it is now one of my favorites.

SLurl to CIA Mainstore: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Fierce%20Island/185/168/30

DSN Review: MS Main Mushroom Throne

I’m FINALLY doing it! For weeks, I’ve been meaning to start blogging some of these super awesome gifts from the Designer Showcase Network, and just haven’t gotten around to it yet. Well today, I finally opened up my ever expanding “DSN To Be Blogged” folder, and pulled something out.

MS Main Mushroom Throne

This super cute patch of giant vines and mushrooms by Misty Harley comes with a flower throne where you can sit and ponder.

I hopped over to her main store to look around, and she has all kinds of really pretty plants and tress for your garden- many with poseballs included. I decided to relax under this tree for a bit, and enjoy the scenery.

Slurl to MS Main One Mystical Serenity http://slurl.com/secondlife/Morgandy/166/198/22

Corona Cay, A Wonderful Community

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a little while, and now seems like a great time to get this out there.

Corona Cay has been my home for the past few months, and it has been an absolutely wonderful place to live. We have a tight-knit, creative community consisting of artists, bloggers, podcasters and musicians. The island itself is a beautiful network of several ‘mini islands’ situated around the central hub of our island- Destination Station.

Corona Cay Overview

Right now, there are five plots available on Corona Cay. Because of the design of the island, every plot has an ocean view on at least two sides. The parcels cost only $3000L per month to rent, and support 351 prims. Two of the available plots happen to be next to each other, so you have the option to buy both of them, doubling your parcel size and increasing the prim count to 700.

The community on Corona Cay is very social and active. We have weekly events such as live podcast recordings at the SLPodcast.net studios, fishing tournaments, car races on our speedway, and general gatherings around the Destination Station where we just chat and hang out. Since Corona Cay is home to Destination Station, we get a good amount of traffic through the area. Destination Station is a hub containing a collection of some of the best places to explore, in SL.

Because we get so many visitors and new residents of SL coming to our island, all of our builds at ground level are considered to be “open house”, and are open to the public to be explored and enjoyed. Because of this, we try to make all of our builds at ground level beautiful, visually interesting, entertaining, or interactive. For those of us that do require privacy, our skyboxes are considered to be private and off limits, except by invitation. Security orbs at ground level are not allowed, as we WANT visitors to the island to be able to explore and enjoy everything on the island. But security orbs in skyboxes are permitted. Ban lines of course, are prohibited.

Corona Cay offers several great amenities.

Corona Speedway. The Corona Speedway track circles the entire island. There are public cars available next to the Destination Station, that you can use to race your friends, or just drive around the island.

Destination Station. A collection of the best places we have found, to explore in SL. Each destination is hand selected or recommended to us. Click on any panel in the Station to open the world map, and teleport to that location.

SLPN Live Events. Many podcasts on the Second Life Podcast Network record live shows at the SLPN Studio. The recordings are open to the public, and there is audience seating. Podmafia records every Tuesday morning at 7am SLT. Coronaverse records most Saturday evenings at 5pm SLT. On occassion, we also have special events like our Corona Cay Speedway Series, Sunday Night Knockout boxing event, and Katana Tournaments.

7Seas Fishing. We have a very nice dock set up next to the Destination Station for 7Seas Fishing, and sometimes we hold fishing tournaments there.

Coronaverse. Residents of Corona Cay host a weekly podcast, where we gather and talk about the latest events in Second Life. We record most Saturday evenings, and residents of Corona Cay are invited to either participate, or just sit back and listen. http://slpodcast.net/shows/variety/coronaverse/

Public Space Crafts. Parked outside the Primagination building, right next to the SLPN Studios. Island owner Itazura Radio has made his spaceships available to the public. The spaceships will fit several avatars, and have a weapons system so you can have laser battles in the sky.

Sounds interesting, so far? Here are the available plots:

Plots #2 and #3

Plots #2 and 3- View two

These two open plots are situated next to each other. You have the option of renting both plots for $6000/month and 700 prims, if you would like a larger space. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Corona%20Cay/31/32/31

Neighbor: Radar Masukami

Plot #8

Plot #8, View two

$3000L/month, 351 prims. Neighbors: Anima Zabaleta and Stuart Warf  http://slurl.com/secondlife/Corona%20Cay/42/232/29

Plot #11

Plot #11, View Two

$3000L/Month, 351 Prims. Neighbor: Danny Dwyer http://slurl.com/secondlife/Corona%20Cay/141/231/28

Plot WWW

Plot WWW, View Two

$3000L/Month. 351 Prims. Neighbors: Jesta Noonan and Arri Gaffer. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Corona%20Cay/219/112/28

If you are interested in renting any of these plots, buy the land for $1L and then find the large boulder on the parcel that has white hovertext over it. Touch the boulder to be teleported to the rental office. Pay the rental ball for your parcel, and you are all set! Warning: You have not rented the land until you pay the green rental ball.

Rental Office

Who Lives On Corona Cay?

Itazura Radio

Meet your new landlord. Owner of Corona Cay. Talented Scripter, builder, podcaster.  Formerly Abnor Mole. Itazura/Abnor Mole hepled build much of the content in Zindra as well as the Linden Roads Routes 7 and 8. Producer/host of the Rezzed And Confused Podcast. Itazura built Corona Cay from the ground up, and nearly everything on it.

Radar Masukami

“Get off my lawn! And get your damn cat out of here!” Radars bark is worse than his bite. Self-proclaimed grouch, but one of the best friends I’ve made in a long time. Radar used to produce and host the SL Under The Radar podcast. Occassionally appears on Coronaverse.

Anima Zabaleta.

Unfortunately, no picture available. Anima doesn’t get in world very often. But when she does, she is a sweet person and a good friend to have.

Stuart Warf

CEO of SLPN. Stuart Warf joined the podcasting community in Second Life together, creating the Second Life Podcast Network. (SLPodcast.net). Stuart is the host and producer of several podcasts, including Podmafia, Building With Warf, Coronaverse, and MetaNews Daily. He is in charge of organizing many of the Corona Cay events.

Danny Dwyer

Danny is like the social butterfly of the island. He loves having people drop by his house for a drink and a chat, and can often be found hanging around the Destination Station, or wherever else people happen to be gathered. You will often hear him appearing in the Coronaverse podcast.

Nika Dreamscape

If you’re reading this, you know who I am. Blogger, artist, podcaster, yadda yadda. I’m most usually working up in my skybox, but on Saturday nights I love hanging out in the Destination Station with everyone else.

Keeme Brown

Keeme is without a doubt, the funniest person I’ve ever met, and my best friend. He’s full of ideas and creativity, and will be the first person to come up and introduce himself to anyone he comes across. For almost a year, we hosted the Diamonds and Rust podcast together. Keeme has his own blog at Keeme.com. And his podcast, Keemecast, can be found by searching iTunes.

Jesta Noonan

Jesta is one of our local musicians. He did the theme song for the Coronaverse podcast. Because of the time difference, I’ve only actually seen Jesta in world a few times, but he has always been very friendly. His work and other links can be found at  www.jesta.co.uk

Arri Gaffer

Because of work, Arri isn’t able to get in SL too often, but its always fun to have a chat with him, when he is around. Arri’s talents include building in SL, and independant film production.

Podcast Pickles

Podcast Pickles, AKA Gary Leland was the original owner of Corona Cay, back when it was known as Podcast Island. Gary is the owner of the podcasting directory, http://podcastpickle.com/ He does not get in world very often, but is a great person to know, if you ever run into him. Also the owner of http://www.softballjunk.com/

Taylor Dannick

Taylor is a content creator, and owner of Dannick Garden Supply.  She is also involved in Graphic arts/design. Fine arts and acrylic art and photography.

Bluesmoke Hextall

Bluesmoke Hextall, aka Guy David is our other resident musician. He is also a podcaster, digital artist and writer. You can see his art in world at his gallery space on Corona Cay, and his music and podcast work is available on http://www.guydavid.com/ Some of Bluesmoke’s music can be heard on 100 Word Stories podcast, and Podmafia Podcast.

Rezzednecks

Forest, Cooter and JuanBuford Weezles. The Rezzednecks are the starring characters of the Rezzednecks podcast. Soon to be entering its 2nd season. The Rezzednecks are played by Radar, Itazura and Keeme.

So, now you have gotten the full tour of Corona Cay, and met the residents. If you would like to join our community, please visit the island and click on the rental ball to purchase. Or, IM Itazura Radio if you have any further questions.

An Interesting Idea..

Inventory overload.

I’m sure just about anyone reading this blog post can agree, our inventories have a way of ballooning out of control at a very rapid pace. I see people talking all the time about trying to clean out their inventories. Monthly purges, inventory swapping parties, yard sales.

As I was sorting through my own inventory this morning, I first started to think about possibly selling some of my transfer items that I’m not longer using on XstreetSL. I’m sure we all have furniture, clothing, plants, and other random items we aren’t using anymore, and wouldn’t mind getting rid of the transfer items.

As we discussed this on plurk, Hybrid Ansar mentioned that a friend threw a bunch of transfer items in a box and told it to a yard sale owner, for them to deal with. But that got me to thinking.. wouldn’t it be interesting if people started putting a set amount of random items in a ‘grab bag’, and put it up for auction with a starting bid of say, $10L. The idea kind of follows the “Woot Bag Of Crap” concept. The definition of the Woot Bag Of Crap, taken from the wiki page:

Bag of Crap

In lieu of typical product sales, Woot occasionally offers a blind grab bag officially called “Random Crap”. Its accompanying picture has lent it the name “Bag of Crap” (BOC). The BOC contains at least three items whose value and quality are not guaranteed, but sometimes expensive items are included. The BOC typically triggers thousands of order requests and sells out within seconds. Processing a customer’s order for a BOC, assuming he or she is first lucky enough to get one before everyone else, may take over an hour.

Now, the traditional Woot Bag Of Crap, as I understand it, could contain true crap, like McDonalds toys or debris from a persons junk drawer. Although at times, expensive items like cameras, bread machines or MP3 players could be included. I think the concept in SL would work a little bit better, as much transfer items in people’s inventories are good quality- most likely clothing or nice items purchased at one point, that they just aren’t using anymore.

I’m thinking of trying this idea out, myself. I have a Bid Box (by the creator of the Lucky Chair), where I can put in an item- in this case, a grab bag of Transfer/No copy items from my inventory, then set the starting bid at 10L. I could also include a few of my own designs, also.

I think if more people started trying out this concept, it could be a LOT of fun. Its a good way to clean out your inventory and make some extra money. And who doesn’t love a grab bag?

I think I’ll try this out. And I really hope other people do, as well! More to come..